Nick Carter got candid about having to perform in London the day after his brother, Aaron Carter, was found dead in his home, saying “it was tough to get up on stage” that night.
On Friday, the Backstreet Boys singer sat down with Extra to talk about his little brother’s tragic passing and how his bandmates were able to lift him up during such a tough time.
“It was very emotional for me, having my guys with me,” the 42-year-old told the outlet. “There’s the old saying, ‘The show must go on,’ that’s been with us for years, but that night, I didn’t know what to expect.”
He continued, “I didn’t know what was going to come from it, getting on that stage. Getting the reaction from the fans, it was definitely comforting, and it meant a lot to me.”
At the concert last month, the band paid a touching tribute to the late singer by playing “No Place” as photos of the siblings played onscreen.
A sobbing Nick was comforted by A.J. McLean, Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough while Kevin Richardson spoke to the crowd on the band’s behalf.
“Tonight we’ve got heavy hearts because we lost one of our family members yesterday, and we just wanted to find a moment in our show to recognize him,” he said. “Nick’s little brother, Aaron Carter, passed away yesterday. He’s part of our family.”
Although Nick didn’t speak at the concert that night, he posted an emotional message on Instagram just hours before the show.
“My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded,” he wrote alongside a series of throwback photos of the two.
“I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. 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.”
Aaron, who battled drug abuse and mental health issues for years, was found dead in the bathtub of his California home at 34 years old.
His on-again, off-again fiancée Melanie Martin told Page Six earlier this week that Aaron “didn’t know how to escape his demons” and would get “suckered” into making the wrong decisions when it came to his sobriety.
“There were too many people involved [at] the end of his life. They [were] the wrong people,” she told us.
While the official cause of death has yet to be released, the singer was reportedly found with pills and cans of compressed air near him.
The “Aaron’s Party” crooner’s family plans to spread his ashes in the Florida Keys later this spring.
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