Hangin' With AJ

In the August, 1998 issue of Teen People Magazine, The Backstreet Boys were featured on the cover! Inside, there was a whole article of them (Hangin' With the Backstreet Boys), talking about their summer tour and their new "I'll Never Break Your Heart" video. They had a section on each of the guys, so now, here's the bit they had on AJ!

By:Lori Majewski

Alexander James McLean, known as A.J., is technically an only child. But he considers the Boys his adopted brothers, and his mom, Denise, is the group's unofficial den mother. She monitors their schedule, deals with emergencies (like when Kevin Richardson had to have his appendix out in Germany last October) and is the liason for the band's international fan clubs.

Denise and A.J.'s dad, Robert, got a divorce when A.J. was four years old. Then, when he was six, A.J. says, "I saw him for about two days at Christmastime. That was it. I never saw him again." Until he was 18, that is, when A.J. decided to pay his dad a surprise visit. "This guy opens the door and I'm like, 'Is there a Robert McLean home?'" says A.J., who earlier the same morning had discovered that his father lived just minutes away from his own Orlando apartment complex. "He said, 'Alex?' I was like, 'Whoa! Dad, you recognize me?' I walked in, and there's Backstreet Boys stuff everywhere! He'd been keeping up with me since the day I started!"

The most rebellious Boy, 20-year-old A.J. plays up his nonconformist image with frequent hair-color changes, a variety of tattoos and a gruff, rap-style singing voice. But he wasn't always so tough, it seems. Laughs Howie, "The first time I met him at a talent competition he was just a little pipsqueak, a little geek." Howie and A.J. were both aspiring actors as kids, and Howie reports they were often up for the same parts because of their similar Latin looks. "He was doing this little puppet show to the Paula Abdul song 'Opposites Attract.'"

A.J.'s still an occasional puppeteer, and and he still loves to be in control. In fact, although the Boys' record company executives and management aren't exactly thrilled with his bad-boy look, he keeps pushing the limits. Even today, with the smell of peroxide perfuming his newly bleached hair, he's pondering his next style statement: a pierced eyebrow. Why is A.J. so intent on challenging the powers that be? One good reason: "The fans love it."

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