Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean celebrates 2 years of sobriety: 'Life is grand'
AJ McLean is marking two years of sobriety.
Though he says he's doing great now, the Backstreet Boys singer said it's an everyday effort.
"Life is grand right now. It never gets easier, but it just becomes a working part of the mind," McLean, 45, told People. "You have to literally make it an everyday thing whether you make it to a meeting or not."
"I talk to my sponsor every day. I talk to people in program every day," he added, noting that he also spent 10 weeks at an outpatient program for mental health recently which he called "totally worth it."
Thanks to his newfound sobriety, McLean said he now feels comfortable with the Backstreet Boys possibly doing another Las Vegas residency.
McLean said being in Vegas was "not good" for him during the boy band's last residency, "Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life," which ran from 2017 to 2019. Now, he said, "Addiction goes anywhere you go, so I can't blame it on a city."
He also has a solo album planned, revealing that part one will drop in January followed by part two in April -- the same month he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys will host their vacation event Backstreet's Back at the Beach in Mexico.
"It's funk, it's R&B, it's pop, it's soul. There's kind of an '80s flair," he teased of his music. "There's some Silk Sonic vibes. It's some really good stuff."
