AJ McLean Recalls 'Really Dark Time' with Backstreet Boys, Realizing 'Something's Not Right' When He Drank on Stage

AJ McLean said his personal struggles contributed to the tough times his band the Backstreet Boys had to go through.

McLean looks back on the band’s history in a new Paramount+ documentary, Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands. There he explains how the group ended up abandoning their time at the top due to personal issues.

The singer, who is now 46 years old, begins: “There was never a break with the Backstreet Boys, but 2001 was a really dark time.”

“We toured nine years in a row, just tour, make an album, tour, make an album. And instead of dealing with my real emotions or feelings, I kind of got caught up in the lifestyle and partying and drinking and drugs,” McLean admits.

“And it wasn’t until I did what I told myself I’d never do — and that was drink on stage — that’s when I even had to know, ‘OK dude, something’s wrong.’ ”

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McLean made the decision to seek help, with the support of his bandmates, even though their relationship was strained at the time.

“The day I flew to rehab from the tour, everyone was at their wits end,” he admits. That first attempt to get sober was in 2001.

In the following years, the band continued to struggle. “And then Kevin left for six years to raise a family,” says McLean, recalling the group’s other big change in 2006. “We gave him our blessing, he gave his blessing to continue as a four-piece and we kept go without him.”

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In 2008, Richardson returned, appearing with the band for the first time during a tour in Los Angeles.

“I’ll never forget when Kevin came back. We were at the Staples Center and he came on for ‘I Want It That Way.’ I’ve never heard screams so piercing that I had to pull my ears out,” McLean recalls.

“He was just standing there and I said, ‘Yeah, take it, buddy. Take it s— in.’ And then we went back to the studio.”

Hear more about the history of the Backstreet Boys and other classic boy bands at Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybandsnow streaming on Paramount+.

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Source: HIS Education