My name is Brian Thomas Littrell. I was born on February 20th, 1975 in St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. I was born to Harold Jr. and Jackie Littrell. I am their second son. My brother is three years older than me. Ever since I was little, I was running around singing and being a comedian and making everybody laugh. I'm very shy around people that I don't know, but once I get to know them, I can relax and I turn into a ham.

We grew up fairly middle class. My dad worked at IBM and he's worked there ever since high school. My grandfather, Harold Littrell, Sr., also worked there.

My Dad enlisted in the Navy and was in for four years. Right before he left the Navy, he met my mom.

As a young boy, I ate, drank and slept church whether I liked it or not. At first, I would have rather been playing on Sundays, but it grew on me and I think it had a lot to do with the way I live my life now. Ever since kindergarten, I was always involved in the children's chorus at church.

I was six or seven years old when I did my first solo in front of a congregation of 1,500 members at the church. It was a big moment!

I was born with a heart murmur and I have a hole in my heart. I went through the first five years of my life without knowing I had it. I never had any disabilities; I was always able to run with the other kids.

When I was five, I was riding my Big Wheel down the street and I hit the curb and skinned by knee. I got a staph infection from that, but no one knew it the time. When I got my Big Wheel home, I got a cookie and a kiss from mom and I was fine.

Two weeks later I had an accident over at my grandfather's house - I slipped and fell on the concrete. My mom was worried about me having a concussion so they took me to the hopsital. During those two weeks, the staph infection had set in.

It's a miracle that I had a second accident, because they discovered the infection. They hopsitalized me for two months.

I remember 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 had set into my blood. I was very weak and very pale. I didn't have any strength. I would have to be pushed around in a wheelchair. Eventually I was able to puch my little IV and walk up and down the hallways.

The infection I had is fatal and I had a zero chance of living. The doctors told my mom and dad to go ahead and make the funeral arrangements, because "your son is going to pass on."

I'm the baby of the family, and it was so hard for my mom to deal with. She asked for help from the church and from fmaily. I was on certain medication, but nothing could stop the infection. But as time went on, the infection started to disappear and it went away! I thank God for that experience. I know that it was a miracle.

I'll never forget something that my mom said when I was 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. You're my baby and I need you. But I finally realized that God has different means."

She realized that I was a blessing in her life, but she had to let me go if it was my time. One night she made a prayer, she said, "Whever happens, happens." And from then on, I started to recover.

The doctors told my mom and dad that if I didn live I wouldn't be able to do anything. But I came out of the hopsital like a rampage, because I was feeling a lot better. It still took some time to get all of my strength back.

Every year since then, I've attended the University of Kentucky Medical Center just one time a year. I go back to the same doctors that I've grown up with. They check my heart and do EKGs and CAT scans. But this year they operated on me and took care of the problem once and for all! Having that experience made a closer relationship with my family, my brother, my friends at church, the whole church itself and 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 out and partying, I was always at a Wednesday church service. I'm not saying that I was the best kid in the world, because everybody has flaws. But is just made me a better person; I was more proud of what I was doing. And when then singing came along with it, the older I got, the more I realized that maybe God kept me on this 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. You have to turn around and use your experiences to your benefit.

Singing And Girls

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 would get compliments like that, but it never really set in.

I always knew that I wanted to sing, but I never really took it seriously until my junior year of high school. My school had a talent show. This girl and I got up there and sang a spiritual song in front of the whole school called, "Another Time, Another Place." She sang the first line and then I came into the song; I got like two or three words out of my mouth, and then all the girls in the audience started to scream! I was all decked out in a suit and tie, and there were spotlights, so I couldn't even see the audience. 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 easlier in the day and I was a nobody. But when I stepped up on-stage and got behind those lights it was totally different. I was an instant star. I think that was the point in my life when I knew that if I could it.

I had a lot of girlfriends in school. One of my relationships lasted like three months and three days in my junior year in 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 in her youth group. I'd liked her since ninth grade and she would never give me the tiem of day. Finally in my junior year she noticed me. I think I learned from the experience - I was just infatuated with her, because she was a very pretty girl. But when I found out about her inner self, I wasn't attracted to her anymore.

Kevin And The Backstreet Boys

When we would have family outings Kevin would always go hang out with my brother. My brother and him were real tight, because they were the same age. My brother also sings, but he doesn't really sing the pop and R&B style - he likes heavy metal and rock 'n roll. They would get together and sing and pretend they were rock stars. My brother never took it seriously. I didn't really take is serious either - until I was just thrown into it.

When Kevin called me from Orlando for Backstreet Boys, I was sitting in my U.S. History class, it was the last class of the day, 6th hour, and it was April 1993. I got home and right when I walk to the door I'm like, "Mom, I gotta tell ya, I gotta tell ya!" and she said, "Yeah, Kevin called about the group and told me all about it." I was like, "This can't be happening!"

My mom's main concern was my education, so she got on the phone and talked to Denice, A.J.'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 A.J. and Nick.

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 it a shot!" I was ona plane at 6 a.m. 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 down in Orlando, I'm in a limo. I was like, "Wooahh, what have I gotten myself into? Here I am, from Lexington, a middle class guy and POW, overnight my life has changed."

Right when I met management, I said, "This is for me, I can fit into this."

I love being in 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.

- Brian Littrell, Teen Girl Power

February 1999