Background and career
Brian Thomas Littrell (; born February 20, 1975) is an American singer and a member of the Backstreet Boys. He is also a contemporary Christian music artist and released the solo album Welcome Home in 2006. He is the father of country singer Baylee Littrell. In 2015, Littrell was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame along with his cousin and bandmate Kevin Richardson.
Littrell was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Jacqueline "Jackie" R. (née Fox), a dentist's secretary, and Harold Baker Littrell Jr., an IBM employee. He has an older brother, Harold III, who is an actor and singer. Littrell is the cousin of fellow Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson; his father, Harold, and Richardson's mother, Ann, are siblings. Littrell was skilled at sports and played in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League. Growing up in a religious Baptist family, he sang his first solo in Porter Memorial Baptist Church at age 7, and was voted President of the Youth Chorus by his peers one year. At 14, he began performing at weddings after Barry Turner, his choir teacher at Tates Creek High School, suggested he could make money singing at social events. Littrell also performed in school plays, including a production of Grease, and worked at fast food chain Long John Silver's. Prior to his singing career, Littrell aspired to become a basketball player, but was seldom selected for high school tournaments due to his height at 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm). He also aspired to become a music minister.
In April 1993, Littrell's cousin and future bandmate Kevin Richardson called him out of an American History class and informed him of an audition for a fifth member of the Backstreet Boys after original member Burk Parsons left the group to become a Christian minister. Littrell flew to Orlando the next day and finished high school via correspondence, graduating in 1994. In 1997, Littrell was instrumental in bringing a lawsuit against the group's creator Lou Pearlman, claiming Pearlman had concealed information regarding the group's earnings. Bandmates AJ McLean, Richardson, and Howie Dorough joined the lawsuit, which eventually resulted in a number of settlements, the details of which were not disclosed. In 2000, he was among Teen People's 25 Hottest People Under 25, tying with Justin Timberlake of rival band *NSYNC.
Littrell longed to record Christian music, a genre he described as "pop positive." In 2004, Littrell signed a solo deal with Reunion Records and released the solo album Welcome Home in 2005. Littrell co-wrote six of the songs on the album, which sold over 100,000 copies in the US and reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 charts. On the Christian album charts, Welcome Home debuted at No. 3. Four singles were released from the album – "In Christ Alone", "Wish," "Over My Head," and "Welcome Home (You)", with the latter reaching No. 2 on the US Christian AC Charts. For three weeks, it was also No. 1 on Reach FM's Top 40 chart and on the US R&R Christian Inspirational charts. In the summer of 2005, his solo single, "In Christ Alone", went to No. 1 on the Christian charts. Despite this change in his career, he remains a member of the Backstreet Boys. Littrell won a Dove Award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year ("In Christ Alone") in 2006 along with songwriters Don Koch and Shawn Craig, and another in 2008 for "By His Wounds" with Glory Revealed. He also won Special Event Album of the Year in 2008 for Glory Revealed, which was a compilation album with many other Christian artists, and in 2010, Special Event Album of the Year for Glory Revealed II. Littrell released two Christmas collections featuring his wife Leighanne and son Baylee, Brian Littrell's Family Christmas, released on December 6, 2010, and Christmas with the Littrells, released on December 6, 2011.
Littrell made appearances with the Backstreet Boys on Arthur, Sesame Street, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and he and bandmate McLean had cameos in Olive Juice, a film starring Littrell's wife Leighanne. Littrell also performed with The Backstreet Boys on Saturday Night Live in 1998 and 1999. In 2013, Littrell appeared with his bandmates in the film This Is the End.
During the band's hiatus, Littrell became committed to a number of other show business activities, most of them for charity. He has joined other celebrities in yearly NBA tours where he played basketball in every NBA city before a game, and has also played charity baseball, softball, and golf games.
