Backstreet Boy had first drink at 2 years old

Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. Photo / AP

Nick Carter had his first alcoholic drink at two years old.

The Backstreet Boys star - who has long battled drugs and alcohol addiction - makes the shocking admission in his new autobiography Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It, in which he tells how his first home was located above a strip club bar operated by his parents, Robert and Jane.

An extract from his book reads: "Family legend has it that when I was two years old, I crawled into one of the Yankee Rebel's liquor storage rooms where I was caught drinking for the first time.

"My parents always laughed at that. I laughed too, for a while, and then I didn't laugh at it any more."

Nick blames his parents heavy drinking for his problems with alcohol later in life, claiming he was "programmed to drink" from a young age.

The 33-year-old recalled: "In one home movie, my cousin and I are acting as if we were going out to a bar like two adults. We danced and feigned we were partying. Looking back at how alcohol was part of our playtime, I realise just how deeply my parents' drinking affected me. It was as if I was programmed to drink."

Carter cleaned himself up after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart, in 2008 but admits he still "slips up" when it comes to alcohol.

The star's siblings have had their fair share of problems, as his younger brother, Aaron, checked into rehab in 2011 for "spiritual and emotional" issues, while his sister Leslie died aged 25 from a suspected prescription overdose in February 2012.

- Bang! Showbiz