Listening to Brian Thomas Littrell, you hear a lot of things that you're not used to hearing from superstars. Like humility. in a time when fame all too ften goes hand in hand with an out of control ego. Brian is andown to earth exception, a young man who doesn't think it's uncool to be wholesome.

Childhood Faith

Born on Feburary 20, 1975, in Lexington, Kentucky, Brian rounded out of a close-knit family that included his father Harold, mother Jackie,  and 3-year-old brother Harold III. Brian grew up in a typical middle class environment -- his father worked for the large computer company IBM and his mother devoted herself to her children and various local vollunteer projects. Although he had a normaly childhood of going to school and playing sports with friends. Brian figured out at a very young age that music would be a big part of his life. "My mom and dad both sing like birds, and they woudl sing in church all the time,' he said. "I was always involved in the children's choir at church, and I was always singing up on stage."

This perfect childhood soon took a dark turn, however. When he was in the first grade, Brian took a tumble in the play ground, which resulted in an infection that spread through his blood and literally threatened his life. As doctors worked to stop the infection, they discovered a heart related problem: A heart murmur and a pin prick size hole in his heart. His condition got so bad that doctors told his parents to make funeral arrangments -- the infection had spread to far and too quickly.

But the doctors hadn't counted on Brian's will to live -- and the power of his parents faith. "I'll never forget something that my mom said when I was 10 or 11," he reflected. "She said, 'You know, Brian, when you wre in the hospital, I was holding on to you for dear life, because I wanted to keep you here with me so bad. [But] I finally realized that God has different needs.' She realized that I was a blessing in her life. and she had to let me go if it was my time, and so she just made a prayer. And from then on, I started slowly to get better and recover."

As Brian recovered, it was decided that surgury to repair the tiny hole in his heart was unnessesary -- and too risky concidering how much the infectin weakened him.

After recuperating for number of months, Brian wanted to return to being a little kid -- especially playing sports, which he loved even more than singing. But his parents were very protective of their son's health. "My heart being weak at the time, my parents were scared. They never let me play soccar, so eventually picked up a basketball."

His parents, realizing that they had to let Brian be a normal boy, allowed him to play b-ball, guessing there was less running than in soccar. Brian immediatly fell in love with the sport. Not only did Brian enjoy playing, he was also very good at it, earning his nickname B-Rok (slang term for a basketball is 'rock'). And once he started playing regularly, he just got stronger and stronger. "In basketball, you do about as much running as in soccar," Brian said. "It's crazy, but i really got into it and I never had any [health] problems."

But even though he loved basketballm he hadn't forgotten about his other love: performing. In high school, he began appearing in school plays and musicals, including landing the lead in Grease. He credits his school music teacher, Barry Turner, with inspiring him to follow his dream, saying that Mr. Turner "got to mold me". This positive reienforcement came to a head in his junior year of high school when, during a talent show, he sang the spirital song "Another Time, Another Place," the response to which (Partiularly that of the girls in the audience) convinced him that singing is what he wanted to do with his life.

"That [talent show] was the point in my life when I knew that if I could pull off something like that with my peers, then there had to be people out in the world who would like it as well. And from then on, it was such a rush."

But Brian wasn't confident enough to pack up and head for New York or Hollywood, he planned to develope his talent at college. "I was close to graduating high school," he told journalist ANgie Nichols. "I was offered a singing scholarship to the University of Cincinnati Bible College, and I was going to go."

Higher Education

He never made it to college. While Brian was in his last year of high school, his 20-year-old cousin, Kevin Richardson, had become a part of a fledgling Orlando-based singing group called The Backstreet Boys, and the group was in search of a fifth and final member. Kevin, AJ, Howie and Nick were having some trouble finding the right person through local auditions -- then Kevin, like a thunderbolt, remember Brian singing in church years before and dashed to the phone. He knew Brian was the right guy for the job, and he was so excitedthat he called Brian's school and pulled him out of classes.

Brian's mom, Jackie, was excited for her son. But she also had her concerns. After all, most singing groups, even those with the kind of first rate professional representation that the Backstreet Boys already had, never make it. Jackie wanted to make sure Brian finished high school just in case this singing group didn't pan out.

"So she got on the phone and talked to Denise, AJ's mom, and Denise told her about the tutor [she had for AJ] and how they go about their days getting their studies done," Brian said. "That was her main concern, and it was all worked out. To make a long story short, we talked to [the group's] 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.'"

He was on a plane the next morning, and Kevin greeted him at the airport with a limo. "I was scared half to death," Brian's admitted. But Kevin was right -- Brian was perfect for the group and he was offered a spot right after he audtioned. What with Brian's pure voice and decicated work ethic, the other boys felt lucky to get him.

Unfortunatly, the dedication to hard would eventually catch up with him. While touring with the BSB in early 1998, Brian found himself unusually tired -- more so than the grindof nightly performances typically caused.

Eventually, he checked himself into a hospital, where exams revealed that the hole in his heart was finally taking it's toll. So on May 8, 1998, he underwent surgery, which was a compleate success. Two months to the day he left the hospital, he was back on stage with the boys, feeling better than ever has before. And the operation not only gave him back his health, it gave him time to reflect on all of the wonderful things in his life.

"I realized that maybe God kept me on this earth so I could so something positive; so I could use the gift that he gave me to be an entertainer. I've learned from the past and what's happened. It's just an experience that you can't get rid of, that you have to turn around and use to your benefit."