Aaron Carter’s final song before his death included lyrics where he seemed to reflect on his own mortality. “Lately” by Checkthestar featuring Aaron Carter was released just two days before Carter was found dead in his home in Palmdale, California. His verse now has grieving fans pondering his legacy.
“Lately” seems to be mostly concerned with breaking out of a routine โ particularly a harmful one that is doing damage to a relationship. In his verse, Carter wraps: “I tell my honey I’ll be gone, but it’s not for long / She don’t mind because she never coming at me wrong.”The song was released on Thursday, Nov. 3, while Carter passed away on Saturday, Nov. 5. It’s not clear if this will be the final release of his music career.
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The L.A. Sheriff’s Department received a 9-1-1 call from Carter’s house at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday โ apparently from a house-sitter who had found Carter to be unresponsive. Police discovered Carter in his bathtub and declared him dead on the scene. So far his cause of death has not been revealed, but posts from his family indicate that drugs were somehow involved.
Carter was 34 years old and was just weeks away from his 35th birthday. He was also eagerly looking for ways to be more involved in the life his child, Prince. Carter has had some highly-publicized struggles with drug addiction, alcoholism and mental illness in the last few years, but he has also worked hard at recovery and many fans believed he was on a healthy path.
Carter is still best known to most fans for his career as a child pop music star. His older brother Nick Carter landed on the national stage in his boy band Backstreet Boys, and from there all of his younger siblings followed him into show business. Since then, the Carter siblings have had a strained relationship, which Nick acknowledged in his eulogy for Aaron on Saturday.
“My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded,” Nick wrote on Instagram. “I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed.”
“Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here,” he continued. “I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz. Now you can finally have the peace you could never find here on earth….I love you baby brother.”