Nick Carter has remembered his late brother, Aaron Carter, with a touching song he dropped on Wednesday, Jan. 11. “Always hoped your tomorrows / Would be better than the days before /I hoped you’d find your road to follow / To a place you were happy in this world,” Nick, 42, sings in “Hurts To Love You.” The song, a touching mid-tempo tribute to his late brothers, sees Nick open up about hoping for the best for Aaron, and that he misses his sibling “with all my heart.”
The Backstreet Boys singer, 42, announced the new song with a post on his Instagram on Tuesday, which featured a snippet of the music video he filmed for it. The clip showed Nick singing in a gray suit and maroon turtleneck about missing someone deeply. As moody lights shined over his body, he belted, “I miss you with all my heart you know I always will … I know it hurts to love you but I love you still.” Nick began writing the song shortly after Aaron unexpectedly died at the age of 34 in Nov. 2022, according to TMZ.
As fans know, Nick and Aaron had quite a complicated relationship. In Sept. 2019, their issues were thrust into the spotlight when Nick and their little sister Angel decided to file a restraining order against Aaron due to his “increasingly alarming behavior”. Nick also accused Aaron of wanting to kill his pregnant wife, Lauren Kitt, and their unborn child.
Aaron, who struggled with substance abuse issues and entered rehab in 2017, took to Twitter to defend himself. “I am astounded at the accusations being made against me, and I do not wish harm to anyone, especially my family,” he tweeted on Sept. 17. “All I ask is for my family to leave me alone. This is blood. Not love. I will never be around you, and I don’t want to be around you. I am the one who said I’m done then you send me this!?” he added in a second tweet.
All I ask is for my family to leave me alone. This is blood. Not love. I will never be around you and I don’t want to be around you. I am the one who said I’m done then you send me this!? Ok. Stop trying to get me 5150’d before I file a harassment suit myself nick I have the $
— AARON CARTER (@aaroncarter) September 18, 2019
However Nick and Aaron had moved past their issues by the time Aaron died. “[Aaron] was on the path to making amends with so many people in his life, and he had made amends and made peace with Nick,” Aaron’s rep told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in Nov. 2022. “Aaron was happy about this because he loved his brother,” they added. “He looked up to Nick in so many ways. They were trying to make everything good again.”
Not only did Aaron make amends with loved ones before his death, but he was also working on his mental health and substance abuse issues, which he admitted in his final interview with Kaila Methven for her show K’LA Afterdark. “I took a break since 2017. I needed to go to rehab. I think I grew into the real, true, authentic version of myself. I went to rehab four times until I finally got it right,” he proudly stated.
Nick mentioned Aaron’s struggles when he broke his silence on his younger brother’s death via an Instagram post on Nov. 6, 2022. “My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded,” he began in his emotional caption, which accompanied snapshots of him and Aaron growing up together.
“I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed,” he continued. “Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz. Now you can finally have the peace you could never find here on earth….God,Please take care of my baby brother.”