"It all started out in a small town in upstate New York called Jamestown. I was
born in the same hospital as Lucille Ball of the I Love Lucy Fame.
My first school was Miles Elementary. Miles was my favorite school, I loved that
school! I was there for four years. That was when I did my first play. "Phantom of
the Opera". My teacher helped me get into it. What happened was she picked
someone for the role but he couldnt' sing, so he sort of strayed off. She needed to
find somebody and luckily I was there. I was real nervous aobut my first play, but
I pulled through. I felt good about it. Bein on-stage is my life! Next year, I went
to Orange Grove. I had favorite teachers there too. This was elementary. I missed
a lot of school because I did a lot of acting then. I started when I was about 9
years old, right after Phantom of the Opera. We were kind of tossed between,
dancing or singing, so I kind of dabbed in a few of them. I did plays and comercials
and sang in a few places. I did comercials for the Lottery and the Money Store
(I was about 10), a lot of that kind of stuff. I really decided what I wanted to
be when I was singing. I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse club and Backstreet Boys.
My siblings loved coming with me (to auditions) and stuff. The little ones were so
young then, they didn't really know what was happening. My first commercial was
for the Money Store, I was about 10. Then I got called by the Mickey Mouse Club
and the Backstreet Boys all at the same time. It just changed my whole life - I was
12 going on 13. Of course I turned the Mickey Mouse Club down for Backstreet
Boys! It was kind of scary, there were meetings and talks about when Backstreet
Boys where going to get a record deal.. be we did quickly become a local sensation.
We did malls and worked around in local places. I was the youngest, the next
oldest was AJ, next oldest was Brian, next was Howie and the oldest was Kevin.
When I was in school, I used to come home with letters - this was when I was really
young. It was so funny, my mom kept all these letters that I came home with in my
book bag. These girls, I can remember how young we were, but they would write
stuff. They could hardly even write their names, but they where writing "I love
you" it was so funny in a sweet way. I was looking back on it, and they had hearts
all over the paper...
There was a lounge called Yankee Rebel, which my father and grandfather both
owned - it was a small place. My sister B.J. was born up there, by my other brother
and sisters were born in Florida.
We had a house on Webber road; I used to love
it up there, it was so fun! My grandparents all lived up there. We had a little dance
floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a DJ and play records. When I
was reall small, I'd get up there in my diapers, and dance around! I have pictures of
me wearing headphones that were bigger than my face.
I was a chunk; everyone used
to call me Charlie Brown when I was little. This is all before B.J. was born. One time
my parents thought they lost me, they were walking around for me saying "Where is
Nikcy? Where's Nicky?" We had and old Pac-Man game and I had pulled up a stool;
there I was in my white diaper sitting up on the stool playing the game. That was
when my love for video games began! My parents thought maybe it'd be cool to move
down to Florida and start a new business, so they packed up their old Cadilac
Eldorado and loaded all our stuff into this little trailer. I was about 5 or 6 then.
The performing bug didn't really hit me until I was about 6 or 7... "maybe I can
sing, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do that" So we make it to Florida, and we
moved into our first house. I guess it was a retirement home, because that's where
my dad first started working.
We lived there maybe for a year. It was about a
16-person facility and we built onto it. My sister and I used to play with frogs
on top of our heads! We got into some paint one time! We painted each other... and
so we had to take a bath in one of those little swimming pools.
We, me and BJ, used
to get into so much mischief, it was so funny. One of my favorite things to do in the
backyard was to go swimming on the hammock. I'd have her on it, and twist her all
up in it, let her go and watch her spin. She kept spinning and she'd get all dizzy
and tell mom. This was a big backyard and the senior citizens didn't care.
Another
thing my sister and I liked to do was sword fight with wood sticks. We would do
that all the time. We got friendly with a few of the older people. My sister got
really close to a woman named Millie, that Millie passed away. They used to be real
good friends; Milly would buy her stuff. Being around older people, I learned to
respect people and that also helped me.
We moved to another place, I met one of
my best friends, his name was Brent and he and I sed ot get into trouble and all that.
In all, I'd say my family and I have lived in about 5 different houses down here.
We kept the same business, we just kept trying to live closer to the retirement
home with out living there. Eventually we did, we moved very close to it. My mom was
a cook at the retirement home, an excellent cook. My mom's a really good cook.
My brother, Aaron and my sister Angel *they're twins* were born at the retirement
home, and so was my sister Leslie. She wasn't born at the hospital. I had to cope
with my mother giving Leslie more attention than me and B.J. We would talk to
each other and say. "Gosh, she's getting all the attention" My grandmother would
spoil her. We get along now, because Leslie get's treated the same as us now. When
the twins came, that really affected everybody.
Leslie got jeallous too! I was
exited to have another brother! The twins really didn't change my life that much, I
guess you could say it was a happy change, because now I have lots of siblings. My
dad who is an only child got all the attention, but had to make friends. I have to
make friends, but always have someone to play with and hang out with.
And the Mickey Mouse Club said they wanted me! I had a feeling that that was going
to be my good acting year - everybody has a good acting year! I had to choose
between the two of them.... Backstreet Boys or the Mickey Mouse Club!
I
was probably closest ot AJ, Brian and Howie all at the same time. When we began
travelling together and rooming together, I turned out to be the one that liked to sleep
the most, AJ ate the most - and I pulled the most practical jokes! I brought my
Super Nintendo with me too, for whatever free time I had. In those days, when I
was home, I went to Universal Studios a lot- I like to ride Jaws! I'm actually afraid
of sharks for real! I had a dream one time, the worst dream in the world: I was on
the bac of a big cruise ship, and I leaned over the rail. This lady pulls up on a red
jet-ski and we're talking to each other. Suddenly, there's this 26 foot Great White
Shark. You could see it's shadow underneath her and I yelled to her. I said "Jump"
and "Watch out!" She jumped and grabbed onto the pole, where I was leaning over
and I tried to grab her and pull her up. The shark jumped out of the water and
grabbed her and pulled her down under. That's like my worst dream ever! That's the
only thing I'm affraid of.
Years ago when I was showing off on my new bike and
broke my right arm, it didn't scare me as much as the thought of the shark - and I
did a 360 in the air and landed right on my arm! I'm generally not a scared kind
of person.
I try to be funny, but Im not really that funny that often - I just keep
quiet a lot. I'm interested in girls, but it's hard to find a girl who doesnt' just like
me for what I am, but for who I am. I don't really test the girls, you can just tell.
My family keeps me humble though, I still have to clean my room
and put my dishes in the sink and stuff. My rooms got a lot of posters in it, my drum
set, my bed, a VCR and TV. It looks like an old 60's room. I enjoy the times when I
can get home with my family, but Backstreet Boys are my family now too- and we
want to stay together!"