"My name is
Brian Thomas Littrell. I was born on February 20th, 1975 in St.
Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. I was born to Harold JR.
and Jackie Littrell - I was their second son.I have a brother
who's three years older then me.We grew up fairly middle class.
My dad worked at IBM; later they were bought out by a company
over in Germany. They work on typewriter ribbons, computer
ribbons and stuff like that. He's worked there ever since High
School, eighteen years old. My grandfather, Harold Littrell, Sr.,
worked there, so my dad kind of followed in his footsteps. [Dad]
enlisted in the Navy and was in for four years. Right before he
left the Navy, he
met my mom. My mom worked at a church, where I grew up actually.
As a young boy, I ate, drank and slept church whether I liked it
or not. I'd rather be playing on Sundays, but it grew on me and I
think it had alot to do with the way I live my life now. Ever
since I was little, I was running around singing and being a
comedian and making everybody laugh. My mom and dad both sing
like birds, so they would sing in church all the time. Ever since
kindergarden, I was always involved in the children's chorus at
church, and I was always singing up on stage. I was like six or
seven years old when I did my first solo in front of a
congregation at the church. This is a church that has like 4,000
members; it would only have had about 1,500 at the services on
Sunday morning. But that was a big feat for a six or seven year
old! I'm very shy around people that I don't know, but once I get
to know a certain person, I can relax and then I turn into a ham.
I'm very timid when it comes to meeting people: I kind if clam up
really easy. I grew up in a house in Lexington. My brother and I
got along - back then, three years was a lot of difference in our
ages. I was born with a heart murmur and I have a hole in my
heart. At the age of five, I was diagnosed with a disease of the
blood and the heart; they call it a slaph infection.I went
through the first five years of my life without knowing I had
this heart murmur. The way it happened was...
One day when I was five I
was riding my Big Wheel down the street and I hit this curband
kind of flipped over and skinned my knee. That's where the
infection set in, [but no one know it the time]. When I got my
Big Wheel home, I got a cookie and a kiss from mom and I was
fine. Then about two weeks later I had an accident over at my
grandfather's house: I slipped and fell on the concrete and kind
of knocked my head really well, so my mom was worried about me
having a concussion or something. That's when they took me to the
hospital. During that last two weeks, the [staph] infection had
set in. It's a miracle that I had [a secound] acident, so they
could get me to a hospital [and discover the infection], because
other then that I was a healthy five year old by
appearence. I never had any disabilities; I was always able to
run with the other kids. But that's when they hospitalied me for
two mounths.
I remember it very well. I used to dream about it, I have a lot
of bad memories about it, because of how unhealthy I was and how
the infection had set into my blood. I was very weak and very
pale. I just didn't have any strength. I would have to be pushed
around in a wheelchair. Eventually I was able to push my little
IV and walk up and down the hallways. This disease that I had is
fatal and I had a zero chance of living. The doctors told my mom
and dad to go ahead and make funeral arrangements, because
"your son is going to pass on." And my mom...I'm the
baby of the family, and it was so hard for her to fear with . Us
being big in the church she asked for help from the church and
from family, and the time went on, I was on certain medication,
but nothing really could stop this infection . As time went on,
however, the infection started to disappear and it went away! I
thank God for that experience. I know that it was a miracle.
There's no medicine that could keep me on this earth.
I'll never forget something that my mom said when i wa 10 or 11:
"You know Brian, when you were in the hospital I was holding
on to you for dear life, because I wanted to keep you here with
me so bad...you're my baby and I needed you. I finally realized
that God has different means." [She realized] that I was a
blessing in her life, and she had to let me go, if it ws my time.
That night when she made that prayer. she gave me up. She said
" Whatever happens, happens, if its meant to be." And
from then on, I started slowly to get better and recover. The
doctors told my mom and dad that if I did live...I wouldn't be
able to do anything. Coming from a protective family, I came out
of the hospital like a rampage, becasue I was feeling a lot
better. It still took sometime to get all of my strength back,
doing everything that I had done in the past...being little, it
didnt limit me to anything.
My first live in sports
was soccer, and soccer deals with a lot of running. We lived
right behind the church, in the split level that I grew up in.
Our church was fairly large and they had a whole football field.
Every summer they had a little soccer camp for kids my age and
little bit younger, and I would always try and get out there and
play with them. My mom and dad were very procective in letting me
do certain extra curricular activities that dealt with a lot of
running, though, any cardiovascular stuff, any stress that your
heart goes under. My heart being weak at the time [my parents]
were scared. They never let me play soccer, so I eventually
picked up a basketball and I played for the church league with
all my high school buddies. In basketball, you do as much running
as in soccer, it's crazy. Ever since then, I really got into it,
and I never had any problems. A couple years after I got out of
the hospital, I was growing,[and my parents] slowly let me do
what I wanted to do.
Every year since then, I attended the University of Kentucky
Medical Center just one time a year. I'd go back to the same
doctors that I'd grown up with. They were still there and they
would check my heart and do EKGs and CAT scans. And every year
they say the hole is getting smaller!! Having that experience
made it a closer relationship with my family, with my brother,
with all my friends at church, the whole church itself, with God.
Growing up with that in mind, I stock to my guns when peer
pressure came around in middle school to do what everybody's
doing. Instead of going out and partying, I was always at a
Wednesday church service. I'm not saying that I was the best kid
in the world, because everybody has flaws. But it just made me a
better person; I was more proud of what I was doing. And when the
singing came along wit it, the older I got, the more I realized
that maybe God kept me on this earth so I could use the gift that
he gave me to be a singer, to be an entertainer. [Today, I have
no physical limitations]; it's all in the past. I look back on
the experiences and I've learned from the past and I've put into
everyday life.
It's just an experience that you can't get rid of, that you have
to tuen around and use to your benefit. In elementary school and
middle school [the girls were like, 'Oh you sing? Big whoop.' In
church it was, 'Man, you're good, you have a really nice voice,'
and that was pretty much it. I would get compliments like that,
but it never really set in. I always knew I wanted to sing, but I
never really took it seriously until my junior year of high
school. My school had a talent show...This girl and I got up
there and sand a spiritual song in front of the school-I mean the
whole school was there. It was a song called, 'Another Time,
Another Place.' She comes on and sings her first line and then I
come into the song; I get like two or three words out of my
mouth, and right then is when all the girls in the audience,
start to scream! I mean, I was all decked out in a suit and tie,
and there were spotlights, so I couldn't even see the audience,
because the lights were so bright. I heard the first three words
I sang and then i couldn't even hear myself. It just blew me
away. I was like, 'Oh my Goodness!' I had just gotten out of my
chorus class earlier in the day and I was a nobody. But yet, when
I stepped up on-stage and got behind those lights it was totally
different. I was just an instant star. I think that was the point
in my life when I knew that if I could pull something off like
that with my peers, then there definietly had to be people out in
the world like it as well. And from then on, it was such a
rush!!
I had a lot of girl friends in school. One of my realationships
lasted like three months and three days in my junior year in high
school. I went out with this girl who was going to a different
church, and I started going to church with her and getting
involved in her youth group. I'd liked her since 9th grade and
she would never give me the time of day, and then finally in my
junior year she [noticed me] and I'm like,' I can't believe...' I
think I learned from the experience, I think I was just
infatuated with her, because she was a very pretty girl and when
I found out about her inner self, I wasn't that attracted to her
anymore. My friends had been saying, 'She's so mean, she's not
personable, she doesen't talk.' I was just like, 'I just her to
death!' Then I finally got my chance and it just didn't turn out.
When I look back on it, it was just an experience.
We always had to take out the trash and run the dishwasher,
because my mom and dad worked at the time. Growing up, my mom was
always involved with the church. When I was dealing with the
stuff in the hospital, we were all surviving off my dad's income.
I always had everything I needed: But when I was 16, I wanted an
automobile. My older brother was 19 and he was driving a little,
old car that he was paying for because he was working a job. I
was like. ' I want to be like that, have a car, go on dates, do
what I want to do. And so for a year I was debating with my mom
because she was like,'You're not getting a car until you get a
job, save some money, put a nice down payment on it and pay it
off.' So I did it! That's where Long John Silver's came in, it's
a fast food chain. I worked there for about a year and a half. I
was saving money, showing some responsibility, working, keeping
up with my school work and church, trying to manage all of my
time; trying to venture off into adulthood. I proved to my mom
that I was reliable and that she could trust me. I believe you
have to work hard...
When we would have family outings [Kevin] would always go hang
out with my brother. It was like my brother and him were real
tight, because they were the same age. I was the baby of the
family...My brother sings also, but he doesen't really sing the
pop,R&B style we have; he likes heavy metal, rock'n roll.
They would get together and sign and pretend they were rock stars
and my brother would beat on the drums. My brother never took it
seriously like I didn't really take it seriously-until I was just
thrown into it. Everyone knows about the day Kevin called me from
Orlando for BackStreet Boys. I was sitting in my U.S. History
class, it was the last class of the day, 6th hour, and it was
April, 1993... So I get home and right when I walk in the door
I'm like, '
Mom I gotta tell ya, I gotta tell ya!' and hse was like, 'Yeah,
Kevin called about the group and told me all about it.' and I was
like,'What?!' He had called both my parents, given them all the
low down and I was the last one to hear about it. I was just in
disbelief! I was like, there's no way! This can't be happening!
My mom's main concern was my education... So she got on the phone
and talked to Denise, A.J.'s mom, and Denise told her about the
tutor, home schooling, how they go about their days getting their
studies done. And if everything worked out, then I would just
fall right in with A.J and Nick and be tutored together with
them. That was her main concern, and it was all worked out. To
make a long story short, we talked to management that night and
they said,'You gotta get down here and audition. We've heard a
lot of great things about you and you gotta give it a shot!!' I
was on a plane at 6am the very next day! I flew down to Orlando
by myself. Kevin and a limo were there to pick me up at the
airport. My jaw was hitting the floor. I was scared half to
death. Here I was and hours before I was talking to him on the
phone! Now I'm down in Orlando, I'm in a limo...I was like,
'Wooahh, what have I gotten myself into? Here I am, from
Lexington, a middle class guy who is groing up and worked hard
and pow, overnight my life has been changed.' Right when I met
management I was like, 'This is for me, I can fit into this, I
love this.' It was nothing like I had expected. I excepted it to
be all formal,' cause I had never auditioned for anything. I
didn't know what it was going to be like.
I love being in the BackStreet Boys! I wouldn't change a thing in
my life! It's a blessing, I thank God for everything. I think
this group has a lot of potential. I think this group has
longevity. We're for real- what you see is what you get. We're
five solo artists put together and we love to do what we
do."