‘A teenage dream to be bought and sold, with what would turn out to be very little regard for his own humanity’: Aaron Carter pictured in 2000.‘A teenage dream to be bought and sold, with what would turn out to be very little regard for his own humanity’: Aaron Carter pictured in 2000.Last modified on Sun 6 Nov 2022 15.49 GMTaron Carter was just 34 when he died on Saturday, yet he seemed to have lived more lives than most.
Born in the small town of Rockwood, east Tennessee, Carter’s bubblegum sound and mini-bad boy image made him the definitive millennium child star. Just innocent enough to be family-friendly but just rebellious enough to become the number-one heartthrob for girls who grew up wearing bedazzled headbands and reading J-14, his dishevelled blond hair and Eminem-via-Dennis the Menace look stood out even in an oversaturated landscape of manufactured pop groups and Mickey Mouse Club graduates.
Carter’s departure from the music industry came around 2002, when his parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman, the late,juggernauts including Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync. The lawsuit alleged that Pearlman had failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter’s debut album, which was released through Pearlman’s label and production company, Trans Continental. In separate suits, Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync both asked to be released from their contracts.