"My name is Brian Thomas Littrell. I was born February 20th, 1975 in St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. I was born to Harold Jr. and Jackie Littrell- I was their second son. I have a brother who's three years older than me. I grew up fairly middle class. My dad worked at IBM; Later they were bought out in a company in Germany. They work on typewriter ribbons, computer ribbons and stuff like that. He's worked there ever since high school, eighteen years old. My grandfather, Harold Littrell, Sr., worked there, so my dad kind of followed in his footsteps. [Dad] inlisted in the navy and was in for four years. Right before he left the navy, he met my mom. My mom worked at a church, where I grew up actually.

As a young boy, I ate, drank and slept church whether I liked it or not. I'd rather be playing on sundays, but it grew up on me and I think it had to do a lot to do with the way I live my life now. Ever since I was little , I was running around, singing and being a comedian and making everybody laugh. My mom and dad both sing like birds, so they would sing all the time in church all the time. Ever since kindergarten, I was always involved with the children's chorus at church, and I was always singing up a stage. I was like six or seven years old when I did my first solo infront of the congregation at the church. This is a church that has like 4, 000 members; it would od have had about 1,500 at the service on Sunday morning. But that was a feat for for a six or seven years old! I was very nervous but I was very hammy! I'm very shy around people I don't know, but once I get to know a certain person, I can relax and then turn into a ham. I'm very timid when it comes to meeting people: I kind of calm up really easy.

I grew up in a house in Lexington. My brother and I got along- back then, three years was a lot of difference in our ages. I was born with a heart murmur and I have a hole in my heart. At the age of five, I was diagnosed with a disease of the blood and heart; they call it Staph infection. I went through the first five years of my life without anyone knowing I had this heart murmur. The way it happened was...
One day when I was five I was riding my big wheel down the street and I hit the curb and I kind of flipped over and skinned my knee. That's where the infection set in, [but no one know at the time]. When I got my big wheel home, I got a cookie and kiss from my mom and I was fine. Then about two weeks later, I had an accident over at my grandfather's house: I slipped and fell on the concrete and kind of knocked my head really well, so my mom was worried about me having a concussion or something. That's when they took me to the hospital. During the last two weeks, the [staph] infection had set in. It's a miracle that I had [a second] accident, so they could get me to the hospital [and discover the infection], because other than that I was a healthy five year old by appearance. I never has any disabilities; I was always able to run with the other kids. But that's when they hospitalized me for two months.

I remembered it very well. I used to dream about it, I have a lot of bad memories about it, because of how unhealthy I was and how the infection set into my blood. I was very weak and very pale. I just didn't have any strength. I would have to be pushed around in a wheel chair. Eventually I was able to push my little IV and walk up and down the hallways.

This disease I had is fatal and I had a zero chance of living. The doctors told my mom and dad to go ahead and make funeral arrangements, because 'your son is going to pass on.' And my mom... I'm the baby of the family, and it was so hard for her to deal with. Us being big in the church, she asked for help from the church and from family, and time went on. I was on certain medication, but nothing could really could stop this infection. As time went on, however, in the infection started to disappear and it went away! I thank God for that experience. I know that it was a miracle. There's no medicine on this Earth that could keep me on this earth.

I'll never forget something that my mom said when I was 10 or 11: 'You know Brian, when you were in the hospital I was holding on to you for dear life, because I wanted to keep you here with me so bad... your my baby and I needed you. I finally realized that God has different means.' [She realized] that I was a blessing in her life, and she has to let me go, if it was my time. That night when she made that prayer, she gave me up. She said 'Whatever happens, happens, if it's meant to be' And from then on , I started to get better and recover.

The doctors told my mom and dad that if I did live... I wouldn't be able to do anything. Coming from a protective family, I came out of the hospital like on a rampage, because I was feeling a lot better. I still took some time to get my strength back, doing everything that I had done in the past... being little, didn't limit me to do anything.

My first love in sports was soccer, and soccer deals with a lot of running. We lived right behind the church, in the split level where I grew up. Our church was fairly large and had a whole football field. Every summer they had a little soccer camp for kids my age or a little bit younger, and I would always try and get out there and play with them. My mom and dad were very protective in letting me do certain extra curricular activities that deal with a lot of running, though, any cardiovascular stuff, any stress that your heart goes under. My heart being weak at the time [my parents] were very scared. They never let me play soccer, so eventually I picked up a basketball and played for the church league with all my high school buddies. In basketball, you do just as much running as in soccer, it's crazy. Ever since then, I really got into it, and never has any problems. A couple of years after I got out of the hospital, I was growing, [and my parents] slowly let me do what I wanted to do.

Every year since then, I attended to university of Kentucky Medical Center just one time a year. I'd go back to the same doctors that I'd grew-up with. They were still there and they would check my heart and do EKGs and CAT scans. And every year they say the hole is getting smaller!

Having that experience made it a closer relationship with my family, with my brother, with all my friends at church, the whole church it's self, with God. Growing-up with that in mind, I stuck to my guns when peer pressure came around in middle school to do what everybody's doing. Instead of going on out partying, I was always at Wednesday Night church service. I'm not saying I was the best kid in the world, because everybody has flaws. But it just made me a better person; I was more proud of what I was doing. And when the singing came along with it, the older I got, the more I realized that maybe God kept me on the earth so I could use the gift that he gave me to be a singer, to be an entertainer. [Today, I have no physical limitations]; it's all in the past. I look back on the experiences and I've learned from the past and I've put it into everyday life. It's just an experience that you can't get rid of, that you have to turn around and use it to your benefit..."

"In elementary school and middle school [the girls were] like, 'Oh you sing? Big whoop.' In church it was 'Man, you're good, you have a really nice voice,' and that was pretty much it. I was get complements like that, but it never really set in. I always knew I wanted to sing, but I never really took it seriously until l my junior year of High School. My school had a talent show... This girl and I got up there and sang a spiritual song infront of the school-I mean the school was there. It was a song called 'Another Time, Another Place.' She comes on and sings her first line then I come into the song; I get like two or three words out of my mouth, and right then was when all the girls in the audience start to scream! I mean, I was all decked out in a suit and tie, and there were spotlights, so couldn't even see the audience, because the lights were so bright. I heard the first three words I sang and then I couldn't even hear myself. It just blew me away. I was like, "Oh my Goodness!" I had just gotten out of my chorus class earlier in the day and I was a nobody. But yet, when I stepped on-stage and got behind those lights it was totally different. I was just an instant star. I think that was the point in my life when I knew that if I could pull something like that off like that with my peers, then their definitely had to be people out in the world who would like that as well. And from then on, it was such a rush!

I had a lot of girl friends in school. One of my relationships lasted like three months and three days in my junior year of high school. I went out with this girl who was going to a different church, and I started going to church with her and getting involved with her youth group. I'd liked her since 9th grade and she would never give me the time of day, then finally in my junior year she [noticed me] and I'm like "I can't believe it..." I think I learned form that experience, I think I was infatuated with her, because she was a very pretty girl and when I found about her inner self, I wasn't that attracted to her anymore. My friends had been saying, "She's so mean, she's not personable, she doesn't talk." I was like "I just love her to death!" Then finally I got my chance and it just didn't turn out. When I look back on it, it was just an experience...

We always had to take out the trash and run the dishwasher, because my mom and dad worked all the time. Growing up, my mom was always involved in the church. When I'm dealing with the stuff in the hospital we were all surviving off my dad's income. I always had everything I needed: But when I was 16, I wanted an automobile. My brother was 19 and he was driving a little, old car that he was paying for because he was working a job. I was like 'I want to be like that, have a car, go on dates, do what I want to do.' And so for a year I was debating with my mom because she was like, You not getting a car until you get a job!, save some money, put a nice down payment on it and pay it off So I did! That's where Long John Silver came in, it's a fast food chain. I worked there about a year and a half. I was saving some money, showing some responsibility, working, keeping up with my school work and church, trying to manage all my time; Trying to venture off into adulthood. I proved to my mom that I was reliable and that she could trust me. I believe you have to work hard

When we would have family outings [Kevin] always go hang out with my brother. It was like my brother and him were real tight, because they were both the same age. I was the baby of the family My brother sings also, but he really doesn't sing the pop, R&B style we have; he likes heavy metal, Rock n Roll. They would get together and sing and pretend they were like rock stars and my brother would beat on the drums. My brother never took it seriously like I didn't take it very seriously- until I was just thrown into it. Everyone knew about the Kevin called me from Orlando about the Backstreet Boys. I was sitting in my US history class, it was the last class of the day, 6th hour, and it was April 1993. So I get home and right when I walked in the door I'm like "Mom, I gotta tell ya, I gotta tell ya! and she was like "Yeah, Kevin called about the group and told me all about it! and I was like "What?! He had called both my parents, given them the low down and I was the last one to hear about it!. I was just in disbelief! I was like, there's no way! This can't be happening! My moms main concern was my education

So she got on the phone and talked to Denise, AJ's mom, and Denise told her about the tutor, home schooling, how they go about their days getting their studies done. And if everything worked out, then I would just fall right in with Nick and AJ and be tutored together with them. That was her main concern, and it was all worked out. To make a long story short, we talked to management that night, and they said You gotta get down here and audition. We've heard a lot of great things about you and you gotta give this a shot! I was on a plane at 6 am the very next day. I flew down to Orlando by myself. Kevin and a limo were there to pick me up at the airport. My jaw was hitting the floor. I was scared half to death. Here I was and hours before I was talking to him on the phone! Now I'm talking in Orlando, I'm in a Limo.... I was like Wooahh. What have I gotten myself into! Here I am from Kentucky, a middle class guy who is growing up and worked hard and POW, overnight my life has been changed. Right when I met management I was like This is for me, I can fit into this, I love this It was nothing like I had expected. I expected it to be all formal, cause I had never auditioned for anything. I didn't know what it was going to be like.

I love being the Backstreet boys! I wouldn't change a thing in my life! It's a blessing I thank God for everything. I think this group has a lot of potential. I think this group has longevity, We're for real- what you see is what you get. We're five solo artists put together and we love what we do."

Nick

"It all started in a small town in Upstate New York called Jamestown. I was born in the same hospital as Lucille Ball of I love Lucy fame. There was a lounge called the Yankee Rebel, which my father and grandmother both owned-- it was a small place. My sister BJ was born up there, but my other brother and sisters were born in Florida. We had a house on Webber Road; I used to love it up there, it was so fun! My grandparents all lived up there.

We has a little dance floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a DJ and play records. When I was really small, I'd get up there in my diapers, and dance around! I have pictures of me wearing headphones that were bigger than my face! I was just a little chuck; everybody used to call me 'Charle Brown' when I was little. This is all before BJ was born. One time my parents once thought they'd lost me, they were walking around saying "Where's Nicky? Where's Nicky?" We had an old Pac-Man I had pulled up a stool; there I was in my white diaper, sitting up on the stool playing the game. That was when my love for video games began!

My parents thought it might be cool to move down the Florida to start a different business, so they packed up their old Cadilliac Eldorado and loaded all out stuff into this little trailer. I was about five or six then. The performing bug really didn't hit me until I was about six or seven....'maybe I can sing, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do that.'

So we made it to Florida, and we're moved into our first house. I guess it was a retirement home, because that's where my dad started working. We lived there for maybe a year. It was about a 16-person facility and we built into it. My sister and I used to play with frogs and stuff around there! I have pictures of us all in mud and we have frogs on our heads! We got into some paint one time! We were painting a chair for my father and we were joking around and started painting eachother. And so we had to take a bath in one of those little swimming pools. We, me and BJ, used to get into so much mischief, it was so funny.

One of my favorite things to do in the backyard was go swinging on the hammock. I'd have her on it, and twist her up in and let her go and watch her spin. She kept spinning and she'd get up all dizzy and tell mom. This was a big backyard and the senior citizens didn't care. Another thing my sister and I would like to do was sword fights with wood sticks. We would do that all the time. We got friendly with the older people. My sister got really close to a woman named Millie, then Millie passed away. They used to be really close friends; Millie would buy her stuff. Being around older people, I learned to respect people and that also helped me.

When we moved to another place, I met met one of my best friends, his name was Brent and he and I used to get into trouble and all that.In all, I'd say my family and Ihave lived in five different houses down here. We kept the same business, we just kept trying to live closer to the retirement home wothout living there. Eventully we did, we moved very close to it. My mom was a cook at the retirement home, an excellent cook. My mom a really good cook! My brother, Aaron and my sister, Angel (their twins) were born at Tampa General/Children's Hospital. Leslie was born at the retirement home. She wasn't born in the hosptial.

I had to cope with my mother giving Leslie more attention then me and BJ. We would talk to eachother and say 'Gosh, she's getting all the attention.' My grandmother would spoil her. We get along now, because Leslie gets treated the same as us now. When the twins came, that really affected everybody. Leslie got really jelious too! I was really excited about having another brother! The twins really didn't change my life that much, but I guess you could say it was a happy change, because now I have lots of siblings! My dad, who's an only child, got all the attention, but had to make friends. I make friends, but I always have somebody to play with and hang out with.

My first school was Miles Elementary. Miles was my favorite school, I loved that school! I was there for four years. That was when Idid my first play, The Phantom of the Opera. My teacher helped me get into it. What happened was she picked someone else for the role, but he couldn't sing, so he sort of strayed off. She needed to find somebody else and luckily I was there. I was really nervous about me first play, but Ipulled through. I felt good about it. Being on stage is my life.

Next year I went to Orange Grove. I had favorite teachers there too. This was elementary. I missed a lot of school because I did a lot of acting then. I started when Iwas about nine years old, right after Phantom of the Opera. We were kind of tossed between acting, dancing, or singing., so I kind of dabbled in a few of them. I did plays, commercials and sang in a few places. I did commercials for the Lottery and The Money Store (I was about 10), a lot of that kind of stuff. I really decided what I wanted to do: sing. I auditioned for the Micky Mouse Club and Backstreet Boys. And the Micky Mouse Club said they wanted me! I had a feeling that was going to be my good acting year-- everybody has a good acting year! I had to choose between the two of them..Backstreet Boys or the Mickey Mouse Club!

My siblings loved coming with me [to audtions] and stuff. The little ones were so young then, they didn't know what was happening. My first commercial was for the 'Money Store', I was about 10. Then I got called by the Micket Mouse Club and the Backstreet Boys all at the same time, it just changed my whole life-- I was twelve going on thirteen. Of course I turned down the Mickey Mouse Club for the Backstreet Boys! It was kind of scary: there were meetings and talk about when the Backstreet Boys were going to get a record deal... but we did quickly become a local sensation! We did malls and waorked in local places. I was the youngest, the next oldest was AJ, next oldest was Brian, next was Howie and the oldest was kevin. I was probably closest to Howie, Brian and AJ at the time. When we beagn to travel together and rooming together, I turned out the one who liked to sleep the most. AJ ate the most-- and I pulled the most practical jokes! I brought my super nintendo with me for whatever freetime I had. In those days, when I was home, I went to Universial Studios a lot-- I like to ride Jaws!

I'm actully afraid of sharks for real! I had a dream one time, the worst dream in the world: I was on the back of this big cruise ship, and I leaned over the rail. We were in the Bahamas and the water was crystal clear. This lady pulls up on this red jet-ski and we're talking to eachother. Suddenly, there's this 26-foot Great White shark! You could see it's shadow underneath her, and I yelled to her. I said 'Jump!' and 'Watch out!' She jumped and grabbed on to the pole, where I was leaning over and I tried to pull her up. The shark jumped out of the water and grabbed her and pulled her down under. That's like my worst dream!

That's the only thing I'm most afraid of. Years ago, when I was showing off on my bike and broke my right arm, it didn't scare me as much as the thought of sharks--and I did a 360 in the air and landed on my right arm! I'm geneally not a scared kind of person. I try to be funny, but I'm not really funny all that often-- I just keep quiet a lot. I'm interested in girls, but it's hard to find a girl who doesn't just like me for what I do, but for who I am. I don't really test girls, you can just tell.

When I was in school, I used to come home with letters-- this was when I was really young. It was so funny, my mom kept all these letters that I came home with in my book bag! These girls, I can't remember how young they were, but they would right stuff. They could hardly write their names, but they were writing 'I Love You'!

It was so funny in a sweet way! I was looking back on it, and they had like hearts all over the paper... My family keeps me humble though. I still have to clean my room and put my dishes in the sink and stuff. My rooms got a lot of posters in it, my drum set, my bed, and VCR and TV. It looks like an old 60's room. I enjoy the times when I can get home and be with my family, but the Backstreet Boys are my family now too-- and we want to stay together."

"My full name is Alex James McLean. I was born January 9, 1978 in Bethesda Memorial Hospital, it was a big 'old pink, Pepto Bismol- coloured hospital in Palm Beach. I was born with a hernia. Here's a bit of trivia: I'm not sure, but I think four of the five Backstreet Boys, everybody but Nick, were born with hernias. It's really strange! Anyway, I lived in a complex on Rosemary circle in Boynton Beach, a subdivisions West Palm Beach. Most of the friends I grew up with lived on that corner or across the street. I went to Unity Elementary School in Boynton through sixth grade. At the time, my father was working for IBM- he was a genius when it came to taking apart computers... he was brilliant. He'd fix then and deliver then back to their owners. My mother was working with my grandmother, Ursula, at the Breaker's Hotel right on the water of Palm Beach . My parents got divorced when I was about four. Back then I would try to mow the lawn, but I couldn't actually do it until I was six or seven. The lawnmower was the kind where you pull the lever and it would go by itself and you just direct it. And it would take me for a ride and I'd be like, 'Woooooah'! So I'd fix the hedges, clean the pool... I never cleaned my room though, that was my mom's job. I'm an only child, and it's fun, fun, fun! I had more privileges that I would if I had brothers or sisters. I was spoiled, , they spoiled my rotten, but I never did get an allowance. When I was around five, my mom got me into modelling and I started doing J.C. Penny's Catalogues and runways. I was seen at a runway show at a mall. There was director there who worked at the Royal Palm Dinner theatre. She asked my mom if I was interested in doing any plays. So my first part was Dopey, as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I had no lines, but I was the biggest hit of that show... I ended up doing about twenty-seven plays in the course of two years! Sometimes it was chorus stuff and sometimes it was leads. Around the end of my 6th grade year, my mother and my grandparents, decided to move to Orlando. They had hear that actors do very well there, so we made the move. At that time was going into 7th grade and I really wanted to go into a performing arts school for drama. A couple of people we met in the community told me a bout this school called the Masters Academy. . I was only there until 8th grade. At that time we were living in Fern Park. My first audition was at the Nickelodeon and I got the part of a character named Skunk on a sitcom called Hi Honey, I'm Home. The character I played had his head shaved and hair dyed blonde down the middle; They shaved my head and I had a mohawk, a rat tail, and bleached blonde hair. Now this school I was going to, you couldn't have hair pasted the collar and I come in with this wacked-out hair-do . They were like, "What's up with your hair?" So that showed lasted two weeks, and then I got fired because I was too tall. Basically, I made some money and got exposure. Them I moved to Kissimee, Florida and went to Denn John Middle School. Nickelodeon kept calling me back for extra work, so I did Welcome Freshman, Fifteen and then I started auditioning for the Mickey Mouse Club. I never became a mouseketeer, but I may have appeared as an extra. I had known Howie since 8th grade, and he auditioned for Disney too, but he was too old. I was too close to the age where they stopped signing kids, which is 17.

When I was younger, I wasn't quiet- I had a big mouth! I was constantly running my mouth and I was also a big-time flirt- I'm still one! Since my mom raised me, I was always taught to treat girls with respect. In fact, I would always treat every girl with the utmost respect. That's why I was always hanging out with girls when I was younger. Girls don't bore me: I love shopping, they love shopping. I love clothes, they love clothes. They're more interesting. With guys it's just sports. I would always like to talk to girls, pull their chairs out and get them things in the cafeteria. Some girls would get jealous, because I would do it for everyone. The first time I really started dating was in 8th grade, and that didn't really work out too well. Then in my freshman year, I did a commercial for MGM and I became really close to the producer. His niece came down and we hit it off. The problem she lived in Ohio, That didn't work out, because she couldn't accept the situation."

Sorry, no Kevin. I'm tryin to find it!!