Part 1

From Superteen Magazine


"It all started in a small town in Upsate 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 my grandmother both owned - it was a small place. My sister B.J. was born up
there, but my other brother and sisters were born in Flordia. 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 had a little dance floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a DJ and play records. When
I was real 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 chunk; everybody used to call me
'Charlie Brown' when I was little. This is all before B.J. was born. One time my parents thought
they lost me, they were walking around looking for me saying "Where's Nicky? Where's Nicky?"
WE had an old Pac-Man game and 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 of video games began!
My parents thought that it'd be cool to move down to Flordia and start a different business, so they
packed up their old Cadilliac Eldorado and loaded all our stuff into this little trailer. I was about five
or six then. Ther 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 make it to Flordia, and we're moved into our first house. I guess it was a retirement home,
because that's where my dad first started working. We lived there for maybe a year. It was about a
16-person facility and we built onto 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 top of our heards! We got into some
paint one time! We were painting a chair for my father and we were joking around and started
painting each other. And so we had to take a bath in one of those little swimming pools. We, me
and B.J., 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 it let it go and watch her spin. she kept spinning and she'd get all dizzy and
tell mom. This was a big backyard and the senior citizens really didn't care. another thing my sister
and I liked to do was sword fights with wood sticks. We would do that all the time. We got friendly
with a few of the older people. My sister got really close to a woman named Millie, them Millie pass
away. They used to be real good 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 one of my best friends, his name was Brent and he and I
used to get in trouble and all that. In all, I'd say my family and I have lived in about five different
houses down there. We kept the same business, we just kept trying to live closer to the retirement
home without living there. Eventually we did, we moved very close to it. My mom was a cook at
the retirement home, an excellent cook. My mom's a really good cook! My brother, aaron and my
sister, Angel (they're twins) were born at Tampa Gerneral/Children's Hospital. Leslie was born at
the retirement home. She wasn't born in the hospital.
I had to cope with my mother giving Leslie more attention them me and B.J. We would talk to each
other and say 'Gosh, she's getting all the attention.' My grandma 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 jealous too! I was excited to have another brother! The twins really didn't
change my life much, but I guess you could say it was a happy change, because mow I have lots of
siblings! My dad, who's an only child, got all the attention, but always have someone 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 I did my first play, The Phantom of the Opera . My teacher
halped me get into it. what happened was she picked someone for the role, but he couldn't sing, so
he sort of strayed off. She needed to find somebody and luckily I was there. I was real nervous
about my first play, but I pulled 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 them. I started when I was 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 and 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 king of stuff. I really
decide what I wanted to be when I was singing. I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club and
Backstreet Boys. And the Mickey Mouse Club said they wanted me! I had a feeling that 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 Micky Mouse Club!"


The Decision That Changed His Life

?My siblings loved coming with me (to auditions) and stuff. The little ones were so young then,
they didn?t really know what was happening. My first commercial was for The Money Store, I was
about ten. Then I got called by the Mickey 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 the Mickey
Mouse Club down for the Backstreet boys! It was kind of scary; there were meetings and talk about
when Backstreet Boys were going to get a record deal...but we did quickly become local
sensations! We did malls and worked around local places. I was the youngest, next oldest was AJ,
nest oldest was Brian, nest was Howie and the oldest was Kevin. I was probably closest to Howie,
Brian and AJ at the tie. When we began traveling together and rooming together, I turned out to be
the one who like to sleep the most. A.J. ate the most - and I pulled the most practical jokes! I
brought my Super Nintendo with me too for whatever free time I had. In those days, when I was at
home, Iwent to Universal Studios a lot - I liked to ride Jaws!
I?m actually afraid of sharks for real! I had a dream one time, the worst dream in the world: I was
on the back of a big crusie ship, and I leaned over the rail. We were in the Bahamas and the water
was crystal clear. This lady pulls up on a red jet-ski and we?re talking to each other. 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 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 right on my arm! I?m generally not a scared kind of person. I try to be funny, but I?m not
really funny that often - I just keep quiet a lot. I?m interested in girls, but it?s hard to find a girl who
doensn?t just like me for what I do, but for who I am. I don?t really test the 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 we were, but they would write stuff. They could hardly even write their
names, byt 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 room?s got a lot of posters in it, my drum set, my bed, a VCR and a TV. It looks like an
old ?60?s room. I enjoy the times when I can get home and be with my family, but Backstreet
Boys are my family now too - and we want to stay together.?

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