Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean Desribes What Happened to Him When He Toured the Scientology Megacenter in Los Angeles

Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean is speaking out about an experience he had with Scientology.

During an appearance on the “Pretty Messed Up” podcast, he described visiting the “megacenter” years ago when he lived in the area.

“At the time, I was living in Los Feliz right down the street from the megacenter of Scientology, so I was curious. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know anything about it. But I wanted to not go alone, so I took a friend with me,” he said. “They brought us to this media room and they sat us down and they said would you mind watching this short film? And we watched this short film, it was about 15 minutes long, and then I said OK, well, that was interesting and we went to leave and the door was locked. They wouldn’t let us out and they replayed the same film again … they played it three times until someone heard me knocking.”

He said that experience “freaked [him] out” because it seemed “like a brainwashing technique” and it did not “seem normal to [him].”

Also appearing on the podcast was Leah Remini, who has spoken out about her experience leaving the Church of Scientology. She slammed one of Scientology’s most-famous members recently.