After rehab, A.J.'s back, alright!
Pop star spends summer fighting alcoholism, depression
In the world of clean-cut boy bands, this news shocked many fans, as well as their parents. However, most people seemed to appreciate the band's honesty about McLean's alcoholism and depression.
McLean did, in fact, extend his rehab time for two weeks near the end of July because doctors felt that he was not quite ready to get back on the road. The Backstreet Boys tour, which promotes their new album, Black and Blue, was scheduled to resume Aug. 24 in Milwaukee. Sales of the album have been less than remarkable, with numbers reaching a mere 5.2 million in the past 35 weeks (only half the number their previous album sold in the same amount of time.) The news of McLean's problem first came out July 9, when his bandmates gave the exclusive story on MTV. In an interview on ABC's 20/20, McLean's mom tried to give a better impression of her son, saying that "A.J. is the bad boy, crazy boy on stage that makes all those pelvic thrusts and does all this stuff to drive the girls crazy." She wanted the world to know that her son does that all for show and in reality he is just a God-fearing, family-loving, ordinary guy. As if we suspected any differently.
At this point, the Backstreet Boys are "back" and their concert tour is in full swing. After a mere thirty days of rehab, A.J. was given a warm welcome back from his fans. With such a short time of recovery, it is hard to believe that his problems are completely taken care of. In an interview conducted by Newsweek magazine, one doctor said that "Doing thirty days of rehab for an alcoholic is like taking a few aspirins to cure cancer." However, let's hope for his fans, and society's sake, he is over his depression — adding a factor such as that to their music could only make it worse.