Aaron Carter: Interview 2001 : Don't call him Nick's Brother!

IT is difficult fathom that anyone as young as 13 has this kid's poise, yet Aaron Carter - the littlest prince of pop - is all confidence when he talks about life on and off stage.With three albums already under his belt, anyone in the music business will tell you he's a veteran.
It's hard to ruffle the kid, but if you want to take a shot, refer to him as Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's little brother.

"I hate that," he says, although he's the first to praise his very successful older brother - who taught him to concentrate while working, but to "remember to have fun."

And Carter is clearly having a ball this year. Tonight he appears at Jones Beach Theater. This spring, he starred on Broadway in the musical "Seussical." His album "Aaron's Party" has gone double platinum (reaching the No. 4 slot on the revered Billboard Top 200 chart) and the kid has just released another disc, "Oh, Aaron," on which the brother from another boy band joins him in duets for two tunes.

While Carter is a teen heartthrob, he ain't available. Last season when he starred on the Disney Channel series "Lizzie Maguire," the show's young star Hilary Duff took a shine to the singer.

Carter, a perfectionist, had to redo their on-screen kiss "about 30 times."

"I'm pretty happy the way it came out," he says.

Post: Why is fun important?

Carter: If you're not having fun, things start to get weird, and then you lose your focus and your friends.

Post: Have you held on to your friends?

Carter: I have one friend; his name is Craig. He is my best friend in the whole world.

Post: Because you're young, do you find people talk down to you?

Carter: I dunno. That's just part of life. There's nothing you can really do about it. When it starts getting to me, I just stop listening. Yeah, I get upset when people look down at me or talk down to me, but I just try to ignore it.

Post: Anything else bother you?

Carter: I hate it whenever anybody refers to me as the little brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. Even when I was in "Seussical," they were going to put that in the Playbill and that got me a little.

Post: The girls on line to see "Seussical" seemed to have Aaron, not Nick, on their minds.

Carter: Yeah, I know, it was kinda weird. What I loved about doing that show was I was my own person. I know my brother helped me out a lot, but when I was on stage, I was really on my own, doing something he's never done.

Post: You do a couple of duets with him on your new album. What was that like?

Carter: It was really fun.

Post: Did he get bossy with you, like an older brother?

Carter: He definitely got a little bossy, but it wasn't a big deal.

Post: You're willing to try new things, like a Broadway musical. Are you afraid of anything?

Carter: Ya know what, the only thing that I get worried about is that it isn't going to be fun. If that happened, I'd lose interest in being a singer. If I'm not having a good time, the rest wouldn't matter.

Post: Doing a concert is a pretty intense situation - lots of work, lots of stress. How do you unwind?

Carter: I dunno. It just happens, but sometimes when I really feel it, it helps to play the drums. I turn up some music and play along and have a good time.

Post: You also get some aggression out with extreme sports.

Carter: I love being on my dirt bike doing motorcross. At one time I had nine bikes.

Post: Why so many?

Carter: Different bikes do different things. I have a bike that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds.

Post: You're a kid. Doesn't your manager say, "That's dangerous, you can get hurt, stop it."

Carter: Yeah, everyone says that - definitely - but my mom is my manager and she tries to let me have a good time.

Post: I thought it was part of every mom's job to keep their kids off motorcycles.

Carter: She worries when I ride because I do jumps and stuff.

Post: How high have you gotten?

Carter: Usually the jumps are 10 feet, but I did one where I got 30 feet high.

Post: What's that like?

Carter: You have to hold on and balance or you go right over and the bike flips. There's no gravity and even though you're a big brick flying through the air you feel like a feather.

Post: What happens when you land? That has to hurt.

Carter: Yeah, it hurts, but it's worth it.

Post: Have you ever messed up on your bike?

Carter: I did this one jump where I didn't start out fast enough and I got in trouble. I knew I was going to crash so I jumped off the bike just in time. The bike broke in half, but I didn't get hurt.

Post: If you aren't singing in 10 years, what professions interest you?

Carter: Marine biology. That's what I'd like.

Post: You travel all over the world as a singer and have had a chance to see every ocean and sea. What's your opinion of the water - is it clean?

Carter: The oceans are in great shape.

Post: What about all the shark attacks?

Carter: Sharks are very misunderstood. They don't mean to hurt people, they don't even like the way we taste. If they had just a little bigger brain they would realize that they're not allowed to eat humans.