Littrell was born in Lexington, Kentucky to Jacqueline "Jackie" R., a dentist's secretary, and Harold Baker Littrell, Jr, IBM. He has an older brother Harold, and is a cousin of fellow Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson. Growing up in a religious Baptist family, Littrell was extremely skilled at sports, and played in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League.. He sang his first solo in Porter Memorial Baptist Church at age 7, and was voted President of the Youth Chorus by his peers one year. At 16, he began performing at weddings after his choir teacher at Tates Creek High School, Barry Turner, suggested he could make money singing at social events. Littrell also performed in school plays including a production of Grease, and worked at fast food chainLong John Silver's. At 15, Littrell had aspirations to become a basketball player, but at he struggled with his height, and was seldom selected for high school tournaments. He aspired to become a music minister, but in April 1993 during a history class at Tates Creek, Littrell’s cousin and future bandmate Kevin Richardson called him out of an American History class and informed him of an audition for a fifth member of the Backstreet Boys. Littrell flew to Orlando the next day and finished high school via correspondence, graduating in 1994.
Career
Backstreet Boys
In 1997, Littrell was instrumental in bringing a lawsuit against the group's creator Lou Pearlman, claiming Pearlman had not been truthful about the group's earnings. Bandmates McLean, Richardson and Dorough joined the lawsuit which eventually resulted in a number of settlements, details of which were not disclosed. Littrell, during the band's hiatus, became committed to a number of other show business activities, most of them for charity. He joined other celebrities in a yearly NBA tour where he plays basketball in every NBA city before a game. Aside from that, he has also played charity baseball games. In 2000, he was among Teen People's 25 Hottest People Under 25, tying with Justin Timberlake of rival band *NSYNC.
Littrell longed to record Christian music, a genre he described as "pop positive". In 2004 Brian signed a solo deal with Reunion Records and released the solo album Welcome Home in 2005. Littrell co-wrote six of the songs on the album which sold over 100,000 copies in the US and reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 charts. On the Christian album charts, Welcome Home debuted at No. 3. Four singles were released from the album - "In Christ Alone", "Wish", "Over My Head" and Welcome Home ", with the latter reaching No. 2 on the US Christian AC Charts. It was also No. 1 on Reach FM's Top 40 chart and on the US R&R Christian Inspirational charts for 3 weeks. In the summer of 2005, his solo single, "In Christ Alone", went to No. 1 on the Christian charts.Despite this change in his career, he remains a member of the Backstreet Boys. Littrell won a Dove Award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year in 2006 along with songwriters Don Koch and Shawn Craig, and another in 2008 for “By His Wounds” with Glory Revealed. He also won Special Event Album of the Year in 2008 for Glory Revealed which was a compilation album with many other Christian artists; and in 2010, Special Event Album of the Year for Glory Revealed II. Littrell released two Christmas collections featuring his wife Leighanne and son Baylee, Brian Littrell’s Family Christmas, released on December 6, 2010, and Christmas with the Littrells, released on December 6, 2011. These albums were just EPs that contained only a few tracks.
TV and film appearances
Littrell made appearances with the Backstreet Boys on Arthur, Sesame Street, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and him and bandmate McLean had cameos in Olive Juice, a movie starring his wife Leighanne. He also performed with The Backstreet Boys on Saturday Night Live, in 1998 and 1999. In 2013, Littrell made an appearance in This Is the End with his bandmates.
Personal life
In 1997, following the breakup of his relationship with girlfriend Samantha Stonebraker, Littrell met Leighanne Wallace on the “As Long as You Love Me” video set in which she was an extra. They dated for two years, and Littrell proposed on Christmas 1999; the couple got married in September 2000 at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta. In November 2002, they had their son Baylee, who appeared in the Broadway musical Disaster! in 2017, released his first single, "Don’t Knock It" in 2018, and his debut album, 770 Country, in 2019. In 2019, a DNA heritage test revealed Littrell's ancestry to be 90.1% British Isles, plus 7.1% Finnish and 2.1% Scandinavian.
Health issues
Littrell was born with a congenital heart condition, making him susceptible to infections. The heart murmur was diagnosed when he was 6 weeks old. At 5, he was hospitalized for two months due to a bacterial infection. Due to his hospitalization, Littrell was held back in school and had to repeat the first grade. In November 1997, doctors found his heart condition had caused his heart to enlarge considerably, but he underwent open heart surgery May 8 1998. He would later establish the Brian Littrell Healthy Heart Club, a non-profit organization assisting children with heart conditions through medical, financial and practical help. In October 2009, Littrell became infected with swine flu, causing the cancellation of the Backstreet Boys This Is Us promotional tour. In the 2015 documentary film , Littrell revealed his 2011 diagnosis of vocal tension dysphonia and dystonia. He continues to work with a therapist to help improve his condition.
Religious beliefs
A devout Christian, Littrell has stated he believes it is the duty of Christians to be open about their faith, saying, "I think as Christians we need to join hands and mount up together and lift God up and talk about our faith publicly and talk about all of the things God has done for us in our life to touch other people." Littrell, who has been a born again Christian since the age of 8, has said that he attributes his success in life to God, and that his faith has always been "the utmost important thing" in his life.
