Aaron Carter, Troubled '90s Pop Star, Dies at 34

Aaron Carter, who became a major teen sensation of the late '90s — selling millions of albums — was found dead early Saturday in a tub inside his Lancaster, California, home, TMZ reports.

The troubled star was 34.

"Extra" has learned a 911 call from Aaron's home came in at 10:58 a.m. Saturday. Deputies reportedly asked for Narcan on the dispatch tape.

Carter was pulled over on suspicion of a DUI just three days ago, when he was seen driving an RV erratically. On-again, off-again girlfriend Melanie Martin was driving behind him.

In September, fans phoned in a welfare check when Carter appeared to be huffing an unknown substance on Instagram Live. The check was performed and he played it all off as a joke.

Carter was a regular on social media, where he recently claimed to be five years sober as of October.

His fans suspected otherwise.

In recent times, Carter — the younger brother of Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter — had rocked a look that was a far cry from his teen-mag pinup days, sporting face tattoos, and appearing gaunt and unwell.

He had also recently dipped his toe into the OnlyFans world, providing explicitly sexual content that was a stark contrast to the squeaky-clean image he'd once had to uphold.

All of this came after a desperately sad 2019 appearance on "The Doctors," on which he said he was bipolar, schizophrenic, and heavily medicated.

It had all begn so promisingly for Carter, who as a child was thrust into the Orlando music scene by his parents, Jane, who wound up a music manager, and Robert. Though his parents managed a retirement home, they quickly became players in the music industry, which was exploding in Orlando thanks to the illusory success of Lou Pearlman.

Pearlman had an eye for talent — he was the man behind the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and a slew of less famous teen groups — but offered unfair contracts and was later convicted of a Ponzi scheme, dying in prison.

But everything Orlando was hot, and Carter at 7 was an adorable moppet. By 9, his first album "Aaron Carter" on Edel was finding its way into the hands of many a tween.

Scooped up by Jive Records, which was having so much success with boy bands and with Britney Spears, his follow-up, "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," reportedly sold more than three million units.

He had not yet hit puberty.

His third record "Oh Aaron" was also a platinum-selling hit, though "Another Earthquake!" (2002) proved a disappointment.

At his peak, Carter was a major draw for teen magazines, posing for countless posters and pinups. And yet, while his albums flew off shelves, he had a harder time cracking U.S. radio, which saw him as too young to be cool enough for heavy rotation.

Overseas, he enjoyed big hits with the singles "Crush On You" (1997), "Crazy Little Party Girl" (1998), "I'm Gonna Miss You Forever" (1998), "Surfin' USA" (1998), and his signature tune, the Bow Wow Wow remake, "I Want Candy" (2000).

He did manage to hit #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000 with "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," which went gold. His only other solo entry on the Hot 100 was his "That's How I Beat Shaq" novelty hit from 2001.

Carter's final album release was 2018's "Love."

Among Carter's many undersung accomplishments, he competed on "Dancing with the Stars" (2009), starred on Broadway at 13 in "Seussical" (2001) and off-Broadway in a 2011 production of "The Fantasticks," and was, for years, a major touring draw. His family appeared on the reality series "House of Carters" in 2006, and he participated in a celebrity boxing batch against Lamar Odom in 2021.

In the early '00s, when he made a guest appearance on "Lizzie McGuire" opposite Hilary Duff, Carter, Duff and Lindsay Lohan were part of a teen-gossip love triangle that sold many a teen-gossip magazine.

His love life was always a prominent aspect of publicity around him; in 2017, when he came out as bisexual, it made international headlines.

Carter's achievements were often overshadowed by negative headlines, including a lawsuit against Pearlman (who had managed him for a spell), arrests, a volatile relationship with a girlfriend he accused of threatening to stab him, the arrest of Martin on domestic violence charges, a bankruptcy proceeding, and a high-profile sacking from a proposed gig in a Las Vegas production of "Naked Boys Singing" in 2021 when he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Always courting controversy, Carter's final tweet on November 3 was addressed to Kanye West, who is embroiled in his own scandal over his repeated anti-Semitic statements. Carter wanted to "talk... man to man."

Aaron was preceded in death by his sister Leslie, who died at 25 in 2012 after overdosing on a prescription medication, and by his dad, who died in 2017 at 65.

He is survived by Martin, his ex-fiancée, and their 11-month-old son, Prince. He is also survived by his mother, his brother Nick Carter, his sister Bobbie Jean Carter, and his twin sister Angel Carter.

Angel remembered Aaron late Saturday, posting on Instagram: