AJ McLean<\/a> has been working on his upcoming solo EP for the past four years. The Backstreet Boys<\/a> singer popped into the Jennifer Hudson Show on Monday (Oct. 20) for a chat about the BSB\u2019s Sphere residency in Las Vegas as well as his upcoming two-part solo project, the first part of which will drop next month.<\/p>\n McLean said the Hi, My Name Is Alex EP will be released on Nov. 27 \u2014 which also happens to be his oldest daughter\u2019s birthday \u2014\u00a0in an unconventional Thursday release to take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday. \u201cBecause in my mind, I\u2019m so thankful and grateful for fans that have waited so patiently for this,\u201d said McLean, 47, who has previously performed on his own under the monikers Johnny No Name and Alexander James (his birth name) and released the solo album Have It All in 2010.<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n The singer said the long wait between solo projects will be \u201cworth the wait,\u201d with a full-length LP, Hi, My Name Is Alexander James, slated to follow on Jan. 9, which happens to be AJ\u2019s birthday. \u201ci\u2019m giving a gift to the fans and to myself. I\u2019m really passionate about it, I\u2019m proud of it,\u201d said McLean. \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible journey finding my way\u2026 outside of Backstreet Boys. This kind of journey of self-discovery and really finding my true happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n McLean noted that he just celebrated four years of sobriety, saying that where he is today shows through in his solo music. He described going to on a mental health retreat to Scottsdale, Ariz. two years ago where during a 10-week stay he began to realize that \u201cAJ\u201d is a character in the BSB and that he doesn\u2019t define who Alex the person is. \u201cI want the world to get to know Alex,\u201d McLean said of the real him.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want everyone to kind of get to know me as me because you know there\u2019s not that much of a difference between the two, but one is part of a group, part of a team and then me on my own,\u201d said McLean. \u201cI finally realized that I can love myself today, which I do. I can look at myself in the mirror,\u201d he added, explaining that he struggled with low self-esteem his entire life.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is kind of mind-boggling considering what I do,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted you to like me and now if you don\u2019t like me that\u2019s your loss. I\u2019m a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, the BSB have a trio of dates coming up at the Schladming Ski Opening in Schladming, Austria on Dec. 5-7, followed by a New Year\u2019s Even run of shows at the Sphere in Vegas on Dec. 26, 27, 28, 30 and 31, then picking up again on Jan. 2, 3 and 5.<\/p>\n Watch McLean on the Jennifer Hudson Show below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AJ McLean has been working on his upcoming solo EP for the past four years. The Backstreet Boys singer popped into the Jennifer Hudson Show on Monday (Oct. 20) for a chat about the BSB\u2019s Sphere residency in Las Vegas as well as his upcoming two-part solo project, the first part of which will drop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[398344,398345,305293,398346],"class_list":["post-2105152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-aj-mclean","tag-alexander-james","tag-backstreet-boys","tag-jennifer-hudson-show"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Charli-XCX-and-George-Daniel-marry-for-second-time-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2105152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2105153,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105152\/revisions\/2105153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2105152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2105152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2105152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n