Backstreet X-Change
"It all started in a small town in Upstate New York called Jamestown. I was born in the same hospital as Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy fame. There was a lounge called the Yankee Rebel, which my father and grandmother both owned-it was a small place. My sister B.J was born up there, but my other brother and sisters were born up in Florida. We had a house on Webber Road; I used to love it up there, it was so fun! My grandparents all lived up there.
We had a little dance floor at the Yankee Rebel, and my dad used to be a D.J and play records. When I was real small, I'd get up there in my diapers, and dance around! I have pictures of me wearing headphones bigger than my face! I was a little chunk; everybody used to to call me 'Charlie Brown' when I was little. This was all before B.J was born. One time my parents thought they had lost me, they were walking around looking for me saying, "Where's Nicky? Where's Nicky?" We had an old Pac-Man game and I had pulled up a stool; there I was sitting up on the stool playing playing the game. That was when my love of video games began!
My parents thought maybe it'd be cool if we moved down to Florida and start a different business, so they packed up the old Cadillac Eldorado and loaded all our stuff into this little trailor. I was about 5 ot 6 then. The performing bug didn't really hit me until I was 6 or 7... 'maybe I can sing, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do that.'
So we make it to Florida, and we're moved into our first house. I guess it was a retirement home because that's where my dad first started working. We lived there maybe a year. It was about a 16-person facility and we built onto it. My sister and I used to play with frogs and stuff around there! I have pictures os us all in mud and we have frogs on the top of our heads! We got into some paint one time! We were painting a chair for my father and we were joking around and painting each other. And so we had to take a bath in one of those little swimming pools. We, me and B.J., used to get into so much mischief, it was so funny.
One of my favorite things to do in the backyard was go swinging on the hammock. I'd have her on it, and twist her up in it, let it go, and watch her spin. She kept spinning and get up all dizzy and tell Mom. This was a big backyard and the senior citizens really didn't care. Another thing my sister and I liked to do was sword fights with wood sticks. We would do that all the time. We got friendly with a few of the older people. My sister got really close to a woman named Millie, then Millie passed away. They used to be really good friends; Millie would buy her stuff. Being around older people I learned to respect people and that also helped me. When we moved to another place, I met one of best friends, his name was Brent and he and I used to get in trouble and all that. In all, I'd say my family and I have lived in about 5 different houses down there. We kept the same business, we just kept trying to live closer to the retirement home without living there. Eventually we moved very close to it. My mom was a cook at the retirement home, an excellent cook. My mom's a really good cook! My brother Aaron and my sister Angel (they're twins), were born at Tampa General/Children's Hopital. Leslie was born at the retirement home. She wasn't born at the hospital.
I had to cope with my mother giving Leslie more attention that me and B.J. We would talk to each other and say, 'Gosh she's getting all the attention.' My grandmother would spoil her. We all get along now, because Leslie gets treated the same as us now. When the twins came, that really affected everybody! Leslie got jealous too! I was excited to have another brother! The twins didn't really change my life that much, but I guess you could say it was a happy change, because now I have lots of siblings! My dad ,who's an only child, got all the attention, but he had to make friends. I had to make friends, but always have someone to play with and hang out with
My first school was Miles Elementary. Miles was my favorite school. I loved that school! I was there for 4 years. That was when I did my first play, The Phantom of the Opera. My teacher helped me get into it. What happened was she picked someone for the role, but he couldn't sing so he sort of strayed off. She needed to find someone and luckily I was there. I was real nervous about my first play, but I pulled through. I felt good about it. Being on stage is my life!
Next year, I went to Orange Grove. I had favorite teachers there too. This was elementary. I missed a lot fo school then because I did a lot of acting. I started when I was nine, right after I did Phanton of the Opera. We were kind of tossed between the acting, dancing or singing, so I dabbled in a few of them. I did plays and commercials and sang in a few places. I did commercials for the Lottery and the Money Store (I was about 10), a lot of that stuff. I really decided that what I wanted to be when I was singing. I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club and Backstreet Boys. And the Mickey Mouse Club said they wanted me! I had a feeling that that was going to be a great acting year-everyone has a great acting year! I had to choose between the two of them....Backstreet Boys or Mickey Mouse Club!"
