He wants to!
Backstreet Boy’s AJ McLean told Page Six that he had to set boundaries with his bandmates. He started by asking his bandmates to protect his name during off-hours. The band now calls him Alex James instead of AJ when he’s not playing.
McLean said her epiphany came after entering a love and relationship addiction outpatient program in 2023.
MacLean, who has been open about her struggles with alcohol and drugs, said: “My sobriety was a 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 blurs the line between work and personal life.
And while he was “the AJ McLean of backstreet,” he said, “there were advantages…there were also disadvantages.”
“And then, through this little moment of self-actualization, I learned boundaries, something I had 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 the band and does not define who I am. Alex has been suffocating for the past 40 years. These two entities are one and can coexist,” he told us.
MacLean added, “I immediately set boundaries with my bandmates and my family and said, ‘Hey, when I’m not in work mode with you guys, just call me Alex.'”
“It took me a little while to adjust… but it was just like a revelation to finally be comfortable with who I am,” he said.
For MacLean, taking the stage as an independent solo artist is both “terrifying” and exhilarating.
“It’s scary at first because you’re used to leaning on four shoulders, but you have to lean into the discomfort… you have to lean into the fear,” he said.
“I reintroduced myself as me and the world knows me as AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys…I don’t expect that tag to stop being attached to me in this first round, but ultimately, you know, I want to be able to stand on my own two feet,” he said.
