‘Backstreet Boys’: AJ McLean Displays Cut Figure Amid Sobriety Transformation

AJ McLean is celebrating a milestone in his sobriety journey. The Backstreet Boys member posted two body transformation pictures taken a year apart on Instagram, showing his progress in sobriety. In the photos, “dad bod” McLean poses with two peace signs alongside more muscled images of him getting pumped in the gym.

“Found the pic on the left from a year ago on vacation,” McLean captioned his Sept. 1 post, “and wow it’s amazing what a little dedication and setting goals can do for a person. The journey is far from over, though. This is just the beginning!” The “I Want It That Way” singer encouraged others to start a healthy lifestyle, writing, “Let’s go! If I can do it so can you!!”

During an episode of his Pretty Messed Up podcast on Dec. 6, he shared he was close to celebrating his one-year sobriety anniversary. December 2022 will mark McLean’s third year of sobriety. “As long as I’m keeping my side of the street clean, I can’t worry about keeping your side of the street clean,” he told podcast co-host and former Dancing With the Stars partner Cheryl Burke. “And everything actually worked itself out. I feel much better.”

His first drug experience occurred just hours before shooting the Backstreet Boys’ music video for their single “The Call” off their 2000s album Black and Blue. The boy bander said his bandmates confronted him months later about his sudden behavioral changes, with Kevin Richardson warning, “I will never trust you again. You’re dead to me” unless he received treatment. The star sought sobriety for nearly two decades.

During an interview with Tamron Hall in November 2020, the singer talked about how his daughter Lyric inspired him to give up alcohol and drugs. “‘You don’t smell like my Daddy,’” he said the 3-year-old told him one night. “That was it,” McLean stated. “There doesn’t get a lower bottom in my world that your own child telling you that you don’t smell like their dad.”

In an interview with Good Morning America in October 2020, McLean described his “turning point.” After returning home from a Las Vegas trip and witnessing his family’s reaction to the odor of alcohol on him, the recording artist decided to become sober. He shares daughters Lyric, 5, and Elliot, 9, with wife, Rochelle DeAnna. “My wife could smell it on my breath,” McLean said. “And my youngest of my two daughters would not sit with me.” He added,”There’s too much to live for today. My beautiful children, my amazing wife, my career, my brothers. I’ve never felt more grounded than I do today.”