The Tragic Life and Death of Aaron Carter
“I am not how some people try to paint me,” he told the outlet. “If somebody wants to call me a train wreck, well, I’ve been a train that’s been wrecked multiple times and derailed by many different things.”
Aaron Carter, August 2022.
Young American singer-songwriter Aaron Carter was found dead in his bathtub at his California home at just 34 years of age. Needless to say, we all know what drove him to his sad, almost predictable end. A child star life, sexual abuse, followed by a life of drugs, legal issues, mental illness, and failed comebacks.
Aaron Carter’s childhood career was controlled by criminal manager Lou Pearlman. He also managed Backstreet Boys which his older brother Nick was a member and NSYNC. Lou Pearlman exploited young boys in exchange for fame and fortune destroying Aaron Carter’s life, corrupting him from the age of 7, and sending him on a lifelong downward spiral to hell on earth. Pearlman died in prison in 2016 while serving a 25-year sentence for running a Ponzi scheme.
Aaron Carter always denied he was sexually abused by Pearlman though his mother Jane believes Pearlman was inappropriate with his brother Nick. Aaron accused his sister Leslie Carter also a singer who died of a drug overdose in 2012 of sexual abuse when he was a child. At the beginning of 2020, Aaron sold naked photos on OnlyFans. In September this year, he lost custody of his 10-month-old son and went back into a drug rehabilitation facility. His final tweet before he died attempted to reach out to rapper Ye (formerly known as Kayne West) for a man-to-man talk.
Such tragedies are rampant in our ungodly, degenerate society. This is the real epidemic. We accept these things happen yet we continue to attend movies and concerts like it’s no one’s business. But it’s everyone’s business because there are powerful people exploiting young children for our entertainment. Heartbreaking stories continue to pour out of Hollywood about young child stars’ lives coming to an unexpected or premature end. When will enough be enough?
At what point do we give the flicks the flick, switch off the iPods or delete iTunes and Spotify. We don’t, because the entertainment industry wields such power over the naïve masses. We are a mesmerized class of indiscriminate consumers who mindlessly absorb movies and music like it’s junk food. We become complicit in this abuse by just viewing it as something that happens in showbiz.
We don’t think twice anymore when we purchase tickets to the next boy band concert. We claim it’s for our young teen who “just wants to go cos all my friends are going”. Have we ever stopped to explain to our offspring that many boys in boy bands have got seriously messed with by some messed up groomer? That those boys on stage might be high on something while they dance and sing to our roaring and clapping. That they are not safe when the show is over and they go back to the hotel with their groomer who likely has other groomer mates on the road with those boys.
We see these tragedies caused by abuse coming but we continue turn blind eyes to the sordid entertainment industry. We are no better than Aaron’s parents who allowed him to get caught up in the dream of fame and fortune. They practically sold him downriver as a slave to be used and abused. He was tossed around like a piece of meat at the Colosseum. It is a sad and tragic story. But we are addicted to entertainment. My heart goes out to all the Aaron Carters out there, may they rest in peace. As for Carter’s abusers, hell awaits them.