In an interview with PEOPLE, the boy band also opens up about their upcoming Las Vegas residency at the Sphere

Back in 2020, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears gave music fans the ultimate dose of pop nostalgia.

The band — made up of Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough — and the pop megastar, 43, teamed up for the dramatic electro-pop number "Matches," which was featured on the deluxe version of her album Glory.

As the "I Want It That Way" group recalls it, both Backstreet Boys and Spears had recorded versions of "Matches" — their first-ever collaboration — in the past, but neither of them wanted to release it.

"It was during COVID [and] the label came and said, 'What about us doing a mashup with the two of you guys on this record?'" Dorough, 51, recalls in a hotel room in New York City.

He added: "And we were like, 'Why not?' We grew up with Britney, on the same label with Jive Records."

They shared many years of being in the music industry together at "the top of our careers."

Elsewhere in the conversation, Backstreet Boys discussed their forthcoming residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which is set to kick off in July. Titled "Into the Millennium," they will bring their 1999 album Millennium to life onstage.

"It's kind of cool to be able to not only just do stuff with new up-and-coming artists, but also to do stuff with your peers that were around the same time as us," explains Dorough. "So it made sense for us to do it."