UPDATED:3-27-01
AJ THANGS
MR. MCLEAN'S STYLE FROM THE UNOFFICIAL BOOK!
AJ Has always had the most outlandish and individual taste in clothes. Even at school he stood out from the crowd, wearing ghetto-style clothes one day and the preppie look the next. He would even borrow his mom's clip-on earrings sometimes and wear them to class, a memory that still makes him laugh. His weird and wonderful dress sense went down a treat with the girls in his class, but the sporty boys at school just thought he was downright strange. Now he's a big-time pop star, AJ is able to give eight tatoos (and counting), loves experimenting with his facial hair, and he has changed his hairstyle more times than he can remember. AJ adores thinking up elborate ideas for video shoots-well he would, wouldn't he, they're another excuse for dressing up!
AJ MCLEAN....the bad a** of the BACKSTREET BOYS. MR. MCLEAN is the BACKSTREET BOY with the longest sideburns, most sunglasses, most cowboy hats and most tattoos. Aj is always having fans coming up to him asking him for a hug or an autograph....but, does this bothers AJ? "I love the attention....most of the time, except when I'm eating," AJ CONFESSES. "Sometimes I'll be eating and fans will come up, drop the paper right in front of me, and they're like, sign this, sign this!" Well AJ hates when fans interupt him when he is stuffing his face."I am like, I am not an object so don't treat me like one." AJ is very happy, when fans come up to him, just be patient and wait for an autograph when he is done eating. "I'll tell them to wait till I'm done, sure enough right after I dumb my tray the fans are there waiting," AJ says.
FROM J-14'S APRIL, 2001 ISSUE!
WILD MAN ON THE LOOSE
AJ has always been the BSB rebel. When the BOYS began making a name for themselves in bad boy, although back then, the only signs of his wild and crazy side were the two tons of silver jewelry he sported on his finger and in his ears, and his over-the-top, eye-catching dance moves. "I'm one crazy kid on stage," AJ said back then. "I try to bring attention to everyone by acting silly and getting the crowd into a giggly, laughing mood. I've had girls come up to me afterwards and say, 'You are crazy!"
Aj continued to explore his crazy side, and soon, he was known as the BACKSTREET BOY most likely to sport a brand-new hair color each and every week. Through the years, AJ's experimented with red hair at all! "I was the original shaved-head boy," he says. "I'm in constant change. I should be nicknamed 'Chameleon,' because I change every minute."
Eventually, the to-dye-for hairstyles got a little old, so AJ turned to body art-he started getting tattos on his arms, on his back and even on his stomach. Again Aj didn't think he was necessarily being a bad boy by getting tattos, he was just expressing himself. "Whether you get your nose pierced or get a tattoo or dye your hair purple, what does it matter? I mean, I don't think I could ever get nose pierced, buit..."
ROCK AND ROLL BOY
Of course, it wasn't long before he was getting a piercing, and now he wears a small silver stud just below his bottom lip. "Yeah, it hurt a lot, and I was worried about it getting infected," he says. "But I just decided one day, yeah, I'm going to do it!"
AJ also decided to go for his dreams of rock and roll stardom by creating his JOHNNY NO-NAME persona-Johnny is a hard rockin' dude with atitude who makes solo appearances and sings tunes like "BAD TO THE BONE" to raise money for AJ's pet charitable cause, VH1's Save The Music Foundation. "Johnny gives me the chance to really rock out and do music that isn't necessarily BSB music," says AJ.
So what's behind the tattos and the wild side? The truth is, AJ is one of the most sensitive, artistic souls you'll ever meet, and no matter how many piercings he gets, he'll always remain sweet and sincere-and true to himself. "If people want to think of me as a bad boy type, fine," he says. "If they want to think of me as sweer, crazy, hadsome, ugly-that's fine. I'm little bit of everything. But one thing people can't accuse me of is being a fake or phony, and that's the most important thing to me."
AJ MCLEAN FROM J-14'S FEBRUARY 2001 ISSUE!
A.J. may seem like a social butterfly, but he sometimes feels insecure. This Backstreet Boy confesses that he's easily bored. So he tries to "liven thing up," by getting another tattoo or dying his hair a wacky shade.
Presently, his hair dark brown(braided) and he has more than a dozen tattoos sprinkled all over his body, which he claims are "to express his individuality." "I got my first tattoo two years ago and I haven't been ably to stop," he says. But you don't have to dye your hair or get a tatto to change your image. Try a new shade of lip gloss!
FROM J-14'S MARCH 2001 ISSUE
JUST ABOUT EVERYONE GETS IN A BAD MOOD AT TIMES AND WE ALL DEAL WITH IT DIFFERENTLY. AJ MCLEAN IS THE FIRST TO ADMIT THAT HE HAS A REALLY SHORT FUSE. IN A RECENT INTERVIEW, HE ADMITTED THAT WHEN HE'S UPSET HE'LL JUST GO OFF. "LIKE WHEN I BROKE UP WITH MY EX-GIRL-FRIEND AND OUR SONG CAME ON THE RADIO," HE SAID. "I JUST GRABBED A BASEBALL BAT AND BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THE MACHINE." HE'S NOT JUST DESTRUCTIVE TO RADIOS, EITHER. WHEN THE GUY GETS SUPER STRESSED, HE'LL SAY, "SCREW THE GROUP! TO HELL WITH EVERYTHING!" WE THINK THIS GUY IS ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE, BUT WHOA! WE REALLY HOPE TO NEVER GET IN HIS WAY WHEN HE'S IN A BAD MOOD!
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AJ MCLEAN IS THE REBEL OF THE GROUP. Multi-tattooed, pierced, and wild-haired, AJ loves to be recognized, and gets a real kick out of going on the band's WEB SITES to talk to fans.
AJ is, and always has been, a ham. His very first acting job was when he was seven years old. He played DOPEY in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, and stole the show! "I was the main squeeze," AJ told a SCHOLASTIC WRITER. "All the girls thought I was really cute. And I went out and signed autographs for all the little kids. And it was funny-back then I signed my full name, Becuse that's what I thought you were supposed to do. But now, I just write, 'AJ' because that's who I am."
By the time AJ was in 6th grade, he had appeared in twenty-seven productions. And in junior high, he won a part on the NICKELODEON TV SHOW HI HONEY, I'M HOME. AJ took classes in dancing, singing, and acting - he knew what he wanted to do. It all clicked when he met up with NICK and HOWIE.
Carefree AJ might seem like he's just into having a good time, but he's had to confront some real issues in his life. When he was just 4 years old, his dad left. He didn't hear from him until two years ago when AJ spotted his dad's return address on a child-support notice. AJ drove out to his dad's place and just knocked on the door. When his dad opened the door, the two embraced, crying. Then AJ noticed that his dad had all this BACKSTREET BOYS stuff hanging on his walls. AJ couldn't believe that his dad had been following the boys all this time, yet never tried to make contact with him. Since the emotional reunion, things have calmed down a bit-though the sitch is still far from ideal. "He remarried, and his wife is pushing him down my throat," AJ told ROLLING STONE, "If he would do things in moderation, maybe we could get a father-son relationship back. But being so pushy, I don't want to do it."
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