Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean revealed he once helped Aaron Carter check into rehab in the trailer of Hulu’s upcoming documentary, Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop. “2017, Aaron reached out to me, asked me for help. I said, ‘Look, if you get on a plane, come out to L.A., I will make sure you get into treatment,'” he recalled. “And he showed up. I was shocked, but I was happy, and he checked into a treatment center in Malibu.”
However, Aaron’s stay was short-lived. “A couple days later, I talked to him, and then he kind of went off the map,” the 45-year-old musician continued. “I think it was maybe two weeks, so I called my friends at the treatment center, and they said he checked himself out.” AJ had been a long-time friend of Aaron, as he was the younger brother of his Backstreet Boys bandmate, Nick Carter.
As fans know, Aaron died at the age of 35 in his California home in Nov. 2022 due to accidental drowning after he inhaled difluoroethane, a gas found in containers of compressed air that can make people high when inhaled, and took alprazolam, a generic form of Xanax. Aaron had struggled with mental health and substance issues for years and even spoke about getting his life back on track in 2017 during an unaired interview before he died. “I took a break since 2017. I needed to go to rehab,” he explained. “I think I grew into the real, true, authentic version of myself. I went to rehab four times until I finally got it right.”
Earlier this month, Aaron’s team revealed they had tried their best to get him the resources he needed to become healthier before his sudden death. “Our team actively tried to implement a plan to rehabilitate a recovery to health, however, due to outside influences and triggering dysfunctional relationships, these circumstances made it a challenge,” they said in a statement to E! News on April 19.
AJ has also struggled with his own substance abuse issues, which he opened up about in the documentary. “I was a functioning addict. I had been in and out of the rooms since 2001, so for 22 years I’ve been battling my own s***,” he admitted at the beginning of the trailer. “I almost lost my marriage, I almost lost my band, I almost lost my life. The last time I relapsed, which would be 18 months ago, my youngest daughter was kind of the nail in the coffin for me.”
“She said I didn’t smell like her dad. That was enough,” he recalled. “That pretty much did it for me and I have stayed sober since and I plan on staying sober. It’s a daily thing.”
Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop will debut on Hulu on May 1.