He wants it that way!
Backstreet Boy AJ McLean told Page Six he had to set boundaries with his bandmates — starting with having them stick to his moniker when off the clock. The band now calls him Alex James, rather than AJ, when they’re not performing.
McLean says the epiphany came in 2023, after admitting himself into an outpatient program for “love and relationship addiction.”
McLean, who has been open about his struggles with alcohol and drugs, said, “My sobriety was on lock, but I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out what was at the root of my addiction.”
He added that low self-esteem blurred the line between his work and personal life.
And while being “AJ McLean from Backstreet” “had its perks…It also had it’s downfalls,” he said.
“And so going on this little self-realization moment, I learned boundaries, something I never really utilized in my life,” he told us.
He recently released an album, an indie solo project, titled, “My Name is Alexander James.”
“AJ is a character in a band and doesn’t define who I am,” he told us, “Alex got stifled for the last 40 years. The two entities, which are one, can coexist.”
McLean added he “immediately set up boundaries with my bandmates first, and my family, and said, ‘Hey, like, when I’m not in work mode with you boys, call me Alex,’” he said.
“It took a little adjusting… but it’s been such a, like, revelation to finally be comfortable in my own skin,” he said.
Stepping onto the stage as an independent solo artist is both “terrifying” and exhilarating for McLean.
“[It’s] 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… you have to lean into the fear,” he said.
“I’m reintroducing myself as me, and the world knows me as AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys… I don’t expect that tag to not be attached to me this first go around, but eventually, I’d like to, you know, be able to stand on my own two feet,” he said.
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