his struggles with alcohol and drugs<\/a>, said, \u201cMy sobriety was on lock, but I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out what was at the root of my addiction.\u201d<\/p>\nHe added that low self-esteem blurred the line between his work and personal life. <\/p>\n
And while being \u201cAJ McLean from Backstreet\u201d \u201chad its perks\u2026It also had it\u2019s downfalls,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so going on this little self-realization moment, I learned boundaries, something I never really utilized in my life,\u201d he told us.<\/p>\n
McLean said AJ is a character in his band Backstreet Boys. Penske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n
He recently released an album, an indie solo project, titled, \u201cMy Name is Alexander James.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAJ is a character in a band and doesn\u2019t define who I am,\u201d he told us, \u201cAlex got stifled for the last 40 years. The two entities, which are one, can coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean added he \u201cimmediately set up boundaries with my bandmates first, and my family, and said, \u2018Hey, like, when I\u2019m not in work mode with you boys, call me Alex,’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The singer said hitting the stage solo is terrifying. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a little adjusting\u2026 but it\u2019s been such a, like, revelation to finally be comfortable in my own skin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stepping onto the stage as an independent solo artist is both \u201cterrifying\u201d and exhilarating for McLean. <\/p>\n
McLean has been a member of the Backstreet Boys for over three decades. Redferns<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] terrifying at first because, you know, you are so used to having four shoulders to lean on, but you have to kind of lean and lean into that uncomfortableness\u2026 you have to lean into the fear,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
McLean feels like he\u2019s reintroducing himself to the world. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m reintroducing myself as me, and the world knows me as AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys\u2026 I don\u2019t expect that tag to not be attached to me this first go around, but eventually, I\u2019d like to, you know, be able to stand on my own two feet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He wants it that way! Backstreet Boy AJ McLean told Page Six he had to set boundaries with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[37888,49,48,361,75,341,6790,43182],"class_list":["post-424953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-backstreet-boys","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-musicians","tag-sobriety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}