Interview with Rolling Stones Magazine
BRIAN LITTRELL: "I've been through a lot at a young age," says Littrell, 23, lining up a shot at a beloved Orlando driving range. Indeed he has, and it all began with a phone call from his cousin Kevin Richardson six years ago. Littrell was a nice churchgoing boy from Lexington who worked after school at the local Long John Silver's. Littrell also sang in the choir and at the occasional funeral ("a song called 'Heaven,' mostly") and planned to attend Cincinnati Bible College. Then he got the call.
"I guess the guys liked me, because two weeks later, I'm performing in front of 5,000 people," he recalls in that rolling Kentucky accent: Ah guess the gahz . . . Littrell, who is courtly and charmingly low-key, has the smooth voice that you hear taking a lot of the band's leads.
While the grinding teen-pop lifestyle has turned many a young talent into a broken, Leif Garrett-esque nightmare, that was the least of Littrell's worries last May, when he had open-heart surgery to correct a heart defect he had had since birth.
"After six years of a schedule that was pretty much horrendous," says his mother, Jackie, "he went for his annual checkup and the doctors noticed that his heart was getting quite large, like one for a 300-pound linebacker."
"I delayed surgery twice because of the tours," says Littrell, smiling ruefully. "I mean, the saddest thing is that I scheduled open-heart surgery around my work schedule. It was like nobody really cared or felt that it was important, because the career was moving on."
He stares out over the range. "It's not worth all that to me," he says quietly. "To be a star and not have my health? Sorry, but it's not worth it." He strides over and pulls up his shirt to reveal a thick, red, five-inch scar with two still-healing puncture marks near the bottom where breathing tubes went into his lungs. "Now I have a manly scar down the middle of my chest," he says.
Littrell doesn't remember anything that occurred right before the surgery -- not when the nurses shaved him, nor when his family gathered around him. "My mom and my girlfriend said I was real cheerful, and then they wheeled in a transfer bed and said, 'Are you ready to go?' And then -- I just busted out bawling."
He hits another ball, which sails off into the hazy Florida sun. "Eight weeks to the day of my surgery, I was onstage performing," he says. Physically, he had healed, but emotionally, he wasn't ready. "I was sixty-five percent, really. My mind-set wasn't there. But the show must go on." And so it did, with oxygen tanks at the ready backstage, which Littrell relied on for the first week or so.
It was around this time that he had an epiphany about what is important in his life. "Music is my love, but it's my job," he says. "There's things that used to be taken for granted that aren't now: time with your family, time to enjoy the fruits of your labor."
Which he is doing with relish -- new Beemer, new house. Littrell heads to his home, in a nearby gated community. He is currently spiffing the place up, with the help of his girlfriend, a pretty blond actress named Leigh Anne. As he nears the place, she calls him to say that fans have been taking his mail out of the mailbox. Ladies! This is a federal offense!
"This isn't the first time," he sighs. He walks into his house as his Chihuahua, Lil' Tyke, pingpongs joyfully around the hallway. Littrell's house is airy and comfortable, backed by a tranquil pool surrounded by flowers. He proudly gives a tour, including his dark-blue office, stuffed with gold records, and the bedroom. (Attention, fan Web sites: It has light-blue walls, a white bedspread and a Jacuzzi encircled by candles in the bathroom.)
"I'm trying to figure out ways to hang my hat at the end of the day," he says. "One day I hope to have a pop-gospel hour. Maybe I don't want to have a solo career one day, maybe I do. I've had a lot of people say they want to work with me when I'm finished with the group. And I look them in the face and say, 'I can't tell you if I'll ever be ready.' "He smiles. " But if I am, I'll call you.'"
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