Aaron Carter wasn't holding back.
In his final interview before his death, on Nov. 5 at age 34, the musician opened up his personal life, career and journey to sobriety.
"I don't smoke that much weed,' she shared on No Jumper podcast's Nov. 2 episode. "I really believe in the Cali sober method. It helped me. So I actually just hit five years clean."
Aaron said he didn't consider marijuana to be a drug (cannabis use is legal in California). He also said he was in an outpatient treatment program, without elaborating.
"I take my medicine legally. I take Xanax," he said. "I take everything legally."
Prior to his death, whose cause has not been determined, Aaron had been outspoken about his struggles with substance abuse and mental health battles. In 2019, the former child star said he suffered from multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and manic depression while appearing on The Doctors.
On the No Jumper podcast, Aaron told host Adam22 he was "taking care of my mental health, working on my relationship."
Aaron was last romantically linked to Melanie Martin. The two first went public with their relationship in January 2020, got engaged six months later and welcomed son Prince in 2021. On No Jumper, Aaron spoke briefly about their baby boy, noting that "he's going to be one year on November 22nd."
Over the past year, Aaron and Melanie found themselves in a perpetual make-up-break-up cycle that Aaron often documented on social media.
"We had some turmoil," Aaron said on the podcast. "We did things, we said things that weren't true, just like of retaliating after each other in the media. We both learned a valuable lesson, at least I did. I learned that that's not what you do. You don't do that."
Melanie appeared distraught in a TikTok video posted after Aaron's death, and said in a statement, "We are still in the process of accepting this unfortunate reality. Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated." The late singer also received online tributes from fans and celebs, including his estranged brother Nick Carter, who said his "heart has been broken."
"Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded," he wrote on Nov. 6. "I have always held onto the hope, that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed."
Nick continued, "Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, But the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz., now you get a chance to finally have some peace you could never find here on earth."
In another podcast interview, released three months before his death, Aaron revealed he wanted to follow in the Backstreet Boys member's famous footsteps.
"I just wanted to be like my brother," he said on an August episode of the Brett Allan Show. "I wanted to do what he was doing because he would come home with all these stuffed animals. I remember very vividly all of these toys. He would bring back this stuff and have 'Nick' on it. So I wanted to become a singer at the age that I did for stuffed animals. Not money. I wanted my own toys."
He added, "Now I'm thinking about it, that really why I wanted to do this."