Alexander James McLean was born on January 9, 1978 in West Palm Beach, Florida to Denise and Robert McLean. He is an only child.
When AJ was only three-years-old, his parents split up (his father left them) for the last time and they filed for divorce. AJ had no real recollection of his father and didn’t particularly care to either. He and Denise moved in with her parents, afraid she wouldn’t be able to support her young son.
His father showed up once when he was in his tween years (sometime between ten and twelve – even he doesn’t really know how old he was) around the holidays. He had no idea who he was until his mother told him. He didn’t feel any connection with him and quickly dismissed the fact that he had seen him. Quite a few years later when the Backstreet Boys were in their prime, his father tried to get in contact with him. He called him every day and acted like he wanted to have a genuine relationship with his son. However, the truth was he only started to really care when he found out that he had a famous son. He was using him and AJ knew it. He ignored the calls and soon they stopped all together.
AJ showed a lot of interest in performance arts at an early age. By the time he was twelve he had starred in seven major plays including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Phantom of the Opera. By the time he was fourteen he had appeared in two Nickelodeon sitcoms.
It wasn’t until at a regular routine audition that he once again ran into fellow audition-goers Nick Carter and Howie Dorough. Wanting a way to pass some time they decided to see how they harmonized together. They liked what they heard and decided to do something about it.
Lou Pearlman was looking to create a male harmonizing group and heard about the three. He quickly picked them up, taking them under his wing. Four different group members later, the Backstreet Boys were formed.
Please don’t copy this or any of the biographies on this website as they are my own and I worked hard on them. – Keira