Tribute to Aaron Carter

One month from now, on November 5th, a certain population and fan-base around the world will grieve and remember the life of Aaron Carter, one of America’s Florida-born rising and falling stars.

It’s sad times when the happiest moments of your life become tainted with the reality of your favorite pop stars lives unraveling over and over again tragically before you.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are jamming out with my best friend and our little sisters to all of our favorite boy bands – Backstreet Boys, N’SYNC, Hanson…and among others, Aaron Carter.

These were the days when cassette tapes were fading out and CD’s were phasing in. When you could still pull out the accordion-style inserts and learn all the lyrics of each song. (And we did.)

We’d use anything available for a platform…the bed, a trampoline, a dresser, possibly even a church stage once or twice… and we’d karaoke into the night until our parents couldn’t handle us anymore.

It was also the days of teenybopper magazines like Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, Bop and PopStar!

We were nowhere close to teens to start… but that didn’t stop us from obsessing over the male hotties of the day and tacking them up on the walls with sticky putty until there was no more space. (to be fair, we had female idols as well, but the focus here is on boy bands.)

With my mom worried about us being “boy crazy”, we even wrote them letters, sure we had a chance of changing our destiny.

Even though Aaron was two years younger than me, it didn’t stop me from crushing on him.

…And let’s be honest, it didn’t stop the music industry either from exploiting his youth and fame by anyone willing to crush on him either.

But we were just kids, we didn’t know any better. And presumably, they were none the wiser either (with the exception of maybe MaCauly Culkin calling the police on his dad as a kid¹).

Aaron Carter was just 7 years old when he began performing in ‘94 and progressively released his first album by ’97, titled by his same name.

This is the album I remember most. My favorite songs were Crazy Little Party Girl, I’m Gonna Miss You Forever and a song I’ve continued to sing at random times into adulthood as a coping mechanism: One Bad Apple [don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl, oh!].

In hindsight, this kid had one powerful understanding of love at such a young age and it begs one to question whether his lyrics and exposure to teen and adult audiences were a little too mature for his age. In any case, fans adored him… At least for a while…

Aaron rose to fame under the shadow of his big brother, Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and with a face as adorable as his, with his long, blonde, silky hair, and the charming personality to go with it, who wouldn’t love him?

He reminds me of a similar childhood crush, Mason Gamble from Dennis The Menace. 😉 Notice any resemblance??

Taking A Tragic Turn…

But as of November 5^th, 2022, Aaron Carter’s life and career ended, allegedly by suicide, with the world asking the same questions they asked to his face while he was still here, “What was wrong with him?”

Born December 7^th, 1987 in Tampa, FL, at age 30, he appeared on The Doctor’s and attempted to answer some of the questions the world was bent on pointing at him. As a last question from Dr. Travis Stork on the episodes, Aaron answered that his greatest fear was “not being able to live as long as I can.”²

4 years later, he was found dead in his bathroom, written off as substance abuse.³

So, what went wrong in the decades between fame and fatality? Was his life a solo, personal failure, or was it a lifetime of surviving exploitation from everyone who should’ve been in his corner? In a follow-up post, these questions will be explored and investigated.

There are plenty of opinions and speculations on the matter, but what’s the truth about his life, history and legacy? Will anyone ever really know?

Whether you’re a fan or not, Aaron’s life changed lives and for that he will be remembered, even if most of the world never even knew much about him…

Rest in peace, Aaron,

iam:ForeverBlessed

View at Medium.com

After news of Carter’s death became public, his brother Nick was one of the first to share a statement. “My heart has been broken today,” he wrote on Instagram. “Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held onto the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed.”⁴

Nick continued, “Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss. But the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz., now you get a chance to finally have some peace you could never find here on earth….God, please take care of my baby brother.”

Aaron’s twin sister Angel also issued a statement via social media. She wrote, “To my twin… I loved you beyond measure. You will be missed dearly. My funny, sweet Aaron, I have so many memories of you … and I promise to cherish them. I know you’re at peace now. I will carry you with me until the day I die and get to see you again. 💔.”

Carter also left behind his fiancée, Melanie Martin, and the pair’s then-1-year-old son Prince. “My heart is completely broken over the passing of my fiancé Aaron. I knew he was struggling, and I tried everything to help him,” she told PEOPLE exclusively. “I will now be raising our son as a single mother and this is the worst day of my life, but I have to be strong for our son.”⁵

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