BRIANS STORY ~~ IN HIS OWN
WORDS
"My name is Brian Thomas Littrell. I was born
on February 20th, 1975 in St.
Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.
I was born to Harold JR. and Jackie
Littrell - I was their second son.I
have a brother who's three years older then
me.We grew up fairly middle class. My
dad worked at IBM; later they were
bought out by a company over in
Germany. They work on typewriter ribbons,
computer ribbons and stuff like that. He's
worked there ever since High School,
eighteen years old. My grandfather, Harold
Littrell, Sr., worked there, so my dad
kind of followed in his footsteps. [Dad]
enlisted in the Navy and was in for four
years. Right before he left the Navy,
he met my mom. My mom worked at a
church, where I grew up actually. As a
young boy, I ate, drank and slept church
whether I liked it or not. I'd rather be
playing on Sundays, but it grew on me and I
think it had alot to do with the way I live
my life now. Ever since I was little, I was
running around singing and being a
comedian and making everybody laugh. My
mom and dad both sing like birds, so they
would sing in church all the time. Ever
since kindergarden, I was always involved
in the children's chorus at church, and I
was always singing up on stage. I was like
six or seven years old when I did my
first solo in front of a congregation
at the church. This is a church that has like
4,000 members; it would only have had
about 1,500 at the services on Sunday
morning. But that was a big feat for a six
or seven year old! I'm very shy around
people that I don't know, but once I get to
know a certain person, I can relax and
then I turn into a ham. I'm very timid
when it comes to meeting people: I kind if
clam up really easy. I grew up in a house
in Lexington. My brother and I got along
- back then, three years was a lot of
difference in our ages. I was born with a
heart
murmur and I have a hole in my heart. At
the age of five, I was diagnosed with a
disease of the blood and the heart; they
call it a slaph infection.I went through the
first five years of my life without
knowing I had this heart murmur. The way it
happened was...
One day when I was five I was riding my Big
Wheel down the street and I hit this
curband kind of flipped over and skinned my
knee. That's where the infection set
in, [but no one know it the time]. When I
got my Big Wheel home, I got a cookie
and a kiss from mom and I was fine. Then
about two weeks later I had an accident
over at my grandfather's house: I
slipped and fell on the concrete and kind of
knocked my head really well, so my
mom was worried about me having a
concussion or something. That's when they
took me to the hospital. During that
last two weeks, the [staph] infection had set
in. It's a miracle that I had [a secound]
acident, so they could get me to a
hospital [and discover the infection],
because
other then that I was a healthy five
year old by appearence. I never had any
disabilities; I was always able to run
with the other kids. But that's when they
hospitalied me for two mounths.
I remember it very well. I used to dream
about it, I have a lot of bad memories
about it, because of how unhealthy I was
and how the infection had set into my
blood. I was very weak and very pale. I just
didn't have any strength. I would have
to be pushed around in a wheelchair.
Eventually I was able to push my little IV
and
walk up and down the hallways. This
disease that I had is fatal and I had a zero
chance of living. The doctors told my mom
and dad to go ahead and make funeral
arrangements, because "your son is going to
pass on." And my mom...I'm the baby
of the family, and it was so hard for her
to fear with . Us being big in the church
she asked for help from the church and from
family, and the time went on, I was
on certain medication, but nothing really
could stop this infection . As time went
on, however, the infection started to
disappear and it went away! I thank God for
that experience. I know that it was a
miracle. There's no medicine that could keep
me on this earth.
I'll never forget something that my mom
said when i wa 10 or 11: "You know
Brian, when you were in the hospital I was
holding on to you for dear life, because
I wanted to keep you here with me so
bad...you're my baby and I needed you. I
finally realized that God has different
means." [She realized] that I
was a blessing
in her life, and she had to let me go, if
it ws my time. That night when she made
that prayer. she gave me up. She said "
Whatever happens, happens, if its meant to
be." And from then on, I started slowly to
get better and recover. The doctors told
my mom and dad that if I did live...I
wouldn't be able to do anything. Coming from
a protective family, I came out of the
hospital like a rampage, becasue I was
feeling
a lot better. It still took some time to
get all of my strength back, doing everything
that I had done in the
past...being little, it didnt limit me to
anything.
My first live in sports was soccer, and
soccer deals with a lot of running. We lived
right behind the church, in the split
level that I grew up in. Our church was
fairly
large and they had a whole football field.
Every summer they had a little soccer
camp for kids my age and little bit
younger, and I would always try and get out
there and play with them. My mom and dad
were very procective in letting me do
certain extra curricular activities
that dealt with a lot of running, though, any
cardiovascular stuff, any stress that your
heart goes under. My heart being weak at
the time [my parents] were scared. They
never let me play soccer, so I eventually
picked up a basketball and I played for
the church league with all my high school
buddies. In basketball, you do as much
running as in soccer, it's crazy. Ever since
then, I really got into it, and I never
had any problems. A couple years after I got
out of the hospital, I was growing,[and my
parents] slowly let me do what I wanted
to do.
Every year since then, I attended the
University of Kentucky Medical Center just
one time a year. I'd go back to the same
doctors that I'd grown up with. They were
still there and they would check my
heart and do EKGs and CAT scans. And
every year they say the hole is getting
smaller!! Having that experience made it a
closer relationship with my family, with my
brother, with all my friends at church,
the whole church itself, with God. Growing
up with that in mind, I stock to my
guns when peer pressure came around in
middle school to do what everybody's
doing. Instead of going out and
partying, I was always at a Wednesday church
service. I'm not saying that I was the best
kid in the world, because everybody has
flaws. But it just made me a better person;
I was more proud of what I was doing.
And when the singing came along wit it,
the older I got, the more I realized that
maybe God kept me on this earth so I could
use the gift that he gave me to be a
singer, to be an entertainer. [Today, I
have no physical limitations]; it's all in
the
past. I look back on the experiences and
I've learned from the past and I've put
into everyday life.
It's just an experience that you can't get
rid of, that you have to tuen around and
use to your benefit. In elementary school
and middle school [the girls were like,
'Oh you sing? Big whoop.' In church it was,
'Man, you're good, you have a really
nice voice,' and that was pretty much it.
I would get compliments like that, but it
never really set in. I always knew I
wanted to sing, but I never really took it
seriously until my junior year of high
school. My school had a talent show...This
girl and I got up there and sand a
spiritual song in front of the school-I mean
the
whole school was there. It was a song
called, 'Another Time, Another Place.' She
comes on and sings her first line and then
I come into the song; I get like two or
three words out of my mouth, and right
then is when all the girls in the audience,
start to scream! I mean, I was all
decked out in a suit and tie, and there were
spotlights, so I couldn't even see the
audience, because the lights were so bright.
I
heard the first three words I sang and then
i couldn't even hear myself. It just blew
me away. I was like, 'Oh my Goodness!' I
had just gotten out of my chorus class
earlier in the day and I was a nobody. But
yet, when I stepped up on-stage and got
behind those lights it was totally
different. I was just an instant star. I
think that
was the point in my life when I knew that
if I could pull something off like that
with my peers, then there definietly
had to be people out in the world like it as
well. And
from then on, it was such a rush!!
I had a lot of girl friends in school.
One of my realationships lasted like three
months and three days in my junior year in
high school. I went out with this girl
who was going to a different church, and I
started going to church with her and
getting involved in her youth group. I'd
liked her since 9th grade and she would
never give me the time of day, and then
finally in my junior year she [noticed me]
and I'm like,' I can't believe...' I think
I learned from the
experience, I think I was
just infatuated with her, because she was
a very pretty girl and when I found out
about her inner self, I wasn't that
attracted to her anymore. My friends had been
saying, 'She's so mean, she's not
personable, she doesen't talk.' I was just
like, 'I
just her to death!' Then I finally got my
chance and it just didn't turn out. When I
look
back on it, it was just an experience.
We always had to take out the trash and run
the dishwasher, because my mom and
dad worked at the time. Growing up, my
mom was always involved with the
church. When I was dealing with the stuff
in the hospital, we were all surviving off
my dad's income.
I
always had
everything I
needed: But when I was 16, I wanted
an automobile. My older brother was 19 and
he was driving a little, old car that he
was paying for because he was working a
job. I was like. ' I want to
be like that,
have a car, go on dates, do what I want to
do. And so for a year I was debating
with my mom because she was like,'You're
not getting a car until you get a job,
save some money, put a nice down
payment on it and pay it off.' So I did it!
That's where Long John Silver's came in,
it's a fast food chain. I worked there for
about a year and a half. I was
saving money, showing some responsibility,
working, keeping up with my school work and
church, trying to manage all of my
time; trying to venture off into adulthood.
I proved to my mom that I was reliable
and that she could trust
me. I believe you have to work
hard...
When we would have family outings [Kevin]
would always go hang out with my
brother. It was like my brother and him
were real tight, because they were the
same age. I was the baby of the
family...My brother sings also, but he
doesen't
really sing the pop,R&B style we have;
he likes heavy metal, rock'n roll. They
would get together and sign and pretend
they were rock stars and my brother
would beat on the drums. My brother never
took it seriously like I didn't really take
it seriously-until I was just thrown into
it.
Everyone knows about the day
Kevin
called me from Orlando for BackStreet
Boys. I was sitting in my U.S. History
class, it was the last class of the day,
6th hour, and it was April,
1993... So I get
home and right when I walk in the door I'm
like, ' Mom I gotta tell
ya, I gotta tell
ya!' and hse was like, 'Yeah, Kevin called
about the group and told me all about it.'
and I was like,'What?!' He had called
both my parents, given them
all the low
down and I was the last one to hear
about it. I was just in disbelief! I was
like,
there's no way! This can't be
happening! My mom's main concern was my
education... So she got on the phone and
talked to Denise, A.J.'s mom, and Denise
told her about the tutor, home schooling,
how they go about their days getting their
studies done. And if everything worked out,
then I would just fall right in with A.J
and Nick and be tutored together with
them. That was her main concern, and it
was all worked out. To make a long story
short, we talked to management that
night and they said,'You gotta get down
here and audition. We've heard a lot of
great things about you and you gotta give
it a shot!!' I was on a
plane at 6am the
very next day! I flew down to Orlando by
myself. Kevin and a limo were there to
pick me up at the airport. My jaw was
hitting the floor. I was scared half to
death.
Here I was and hours before I was talking
to him on the phone! Now I'm down in
Florida..
Email:
bbgirl5@webtv.net
