AJ McLean

West Palm Beach, then an Orlando audition

Alexander James McLean was born on 9 January 1978 in West Palm Beach, Florida, the only child of Denise and Robert McLean. His parents separated when he was two and he was raised by his mother and grandparents. He answered an Orlando casting call in April 1992 that specified singers aged 16 to 19, and was taken on at 14.

The group that cohered around that audition — McLean alongside Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell — was formally constituted as the Backstreet Boys in 1993. McLean has therefore spent the whole of his adult working life inside one band, a fact he has made the explicit subject of the solo work he is touring now.

The day job, and what it looks like in 2026

The Backstreet Boys remain McLean's main stage, and the shape of that work has changed. Since July 2025 the group has held a Las Vegas residency at Sphere titled Into the Millennium, built around the 1999 album Millennium, with choreography set against 360-degree imagery on the venue's LED interior. The group were the first act to physically fly through the room. Audiences turn up in white, matching the record's sleeve.

The numbers are substantial. A Venetian Las Vegas release dated 16 March 2026 put the residency at 35 sold-out shows and more than 575,000 attendees, and added three final summer performances on 27, 28 and 29 August 2026 to a 2026 run that already covered 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31 July and 1, 6, 7 and 8 August. The residency returns to Sphere from 26 December 2026 with New Year's weekend performances. Reviews quoted in the venue's own materials were strong on the singing rather than only the spectacle: Billboard called it arguably the group's best performance yet at the venue, and USA Today described pristinely sung ballads inside what it treated as a ride more than a concert.

The scale of that production matters to the solo tour mainly as a contrast. One run plays a purpose-built 18,000-capacity dome; the other starts in a bowling alley in Williamsburg.

Four earlier runs at going solo

This is not McLean's first attempt. In 2000 he created an alter ego, Johnny No Name, to play material outside the group. A full solo album, Have It All, followed on 20 January 2010. In 2013 a single with the Finnish rapper Redrama, 'Clouds', reached number four in Finland. In June 2018 he moved towards country-pop with 'Back Porch Bottle Service'. An announced album titled Sex and Bodies did not materialise in that form, though February 2024 brought a single, 'Electric', released for the first time under the name Alexander James.

Alongside the music he has worked steadily in television: Dancing with the Stars season 29 in 2020, where he finished seventh; RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race season 2 in 2022, which he won performing as Poppy Love; and hosting duties on the Netflix competition series Building the Band in 2025. That last credit put him in front of a larger non-Backstreet audience than any of the earlier singles managed.

His personal history has been public for most of that period. He entered treatment in July 2001 and again in 2002 and in January 2011, relapsed at the end of 2019, and has spoken openly about staying sober since. He married Rochelle Karidis on 17 December 2011 and announced their divorce on 1 January 2024; they have two daughters.

The name change, and the record it produced

The current chapter began on The Jennifer Hudson Show, where McLean announced an EP and an album and explained the renaming in plain terms: 'AJ is a character in a band. It doesn't define me as who I am. I want the world to get to know Alex.' The EP, Hi, My Name Is Alex, arrived on 27 November 2025.

The full album followed on 9 January 2026, his 48th birthday, credited on streaming services as AJ McLean but titled my name is Alexander James. It runs 17 tracks in roughly 47 minutes and carries a Johnny Wright Entertainment copyright line — Wright having managed the Backstreet Boys from the beginning. Sixteen years separated it from Have It All.

A 47-minute, 17-song album implies short songs and little padding, and the sequencing reflects a record assembled over several years rather than a single studio block. It is the first of his solo releases to be built as a standalone body of work rather than a side project with a pseudonym attached.

Where he stands in October 2026

The pace since has been quick. 'Into Your Heart' was released on 16 September 2026, with a video McLean co-directed, and announced a second album, Sex, Love and Music, set for 27 November 2026 — Black Friday, and the anniversary of the EP. Billboard's write-up on the single described it as lusty. McLean's own account of the track was less freighted: 'This one just felt good from the second we made it. There's an energy to Into Your Heart that I love.' On the broader position he has been direct about what the solo deal buys him — 'One of the best parts of this chapter is having the freedom to follow the music wherever it takes me.'

The Better Man Tour was announced on 22 June 2026 as his first North American headline run under his own name, with more than two dozen dates between October and December. On 30 September 2026 he added 15 shows extending into 2027, opening on 12 January 2027 in Tracy, California and closing on 5 February 2027 in San Diego, taking in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and South in between. Presales for those began on 1 October and general sale on 2 October.

That makes three distinct commitments running at once in the next fourteen months: an album in late November, a solo tour through to February, and the Sphere residency resuming on 26 December.

What the tour is actually set up to be

The first show is on 19 October 2026 at Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn, moved forward from an originally advertised 20 October, with tickets for the old date honoured. Doors are at 18:00 and the performance at 20:00; the room is restricted to over-18s. Matt Bloyd and DJ Gab Wright are listed in support. The autumn leg closes on 5 December 2026 at the Fox Tucson Theatre.

McLean's description of the format is specific about instrumentation and about what the audience is being promised: 'We've been putting a lot into this show and it's going to be a really fun one. New music, a full band, some songs people definitely know and probably a few surprises.' In practice that means material from my name is Alexander James and the forthcoming album, with Backstreet Boys songs in the set rather than excluded from it — the tour was framed from the announcement as both the new record and a pass through the career that produced it.

Because the opening night falls on 19 October, no performances had taken place at the time of writing and setlist.fm holds no logged setlists for the tour. Anyone wanting a verified running order will have to wait for Brooklyn.