"You know why I put Lays on my rider?" Aaron Carter asks, munching chips from a yellow bag in his dressing room at the Gramercy Theatre in New York. "JC Chasez taught me this. It's because the oil in the chips lubricates your throat, so it's good for singing."
The kiddie-pop sensation, now 25 years old, is on tour for the first time in a decade after recently wrapping up a stint in the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks. Though he hasn't put out a new record recently, Aaron has become one of those celebrities whose online presence has made him a favorite of the internet hivemind. Jon Hendren, who goes by @fart on Twitter, noticed that Aaron's tweets were often, well, horny. Hendren started badgering Aaron over Twitter to reveal his "horny level" — a number on a scale of 1 to 10 indicating how horny he was.
A full-fledged campaign was waged over Twitter, with hundreds of people tweeting at Aaron asking him to give a number from 1 through 10. At one point, the hashtag #AaronCarterHornyLevel actually made it onto the top U.S. trending topics on Twitter.
We sat down with Aaron to go Behind The Tweets — and to finally settle this horny-level issue once and for all.
Aaron Carter: OK, so I was at the grocery store, and I saw brownie macaroni Kid Cuisine. I bought two and I ate both of them that night. Then I got really hungry later in the day. I had this vision of my eating Kid Cuisine, and I figured people would think it was funny because so many people my age grew up eating Kid Cuisine.
AC: OK, so real talk: My parents divorced and then all of a sudden my huge Beanie Baby collection from over 15 years scattered, gone, nowhere to be seen. I don't know what they did with them, good lord.
AC: Well…because I've started becoming a little more open and expressive on my social media, and I don't know how it never gets me in trouble. But…I guess it does.
AC: We were ordering some Chinese food, we had a chill New Year's Eve, it was cool. I couldn't understand him. So I figured, if I can't understand him, and he can't understand me, I'm going to start doing his accent and see if it helps. And it did. There were a few people who got offended, but whatever. They did get the order right. I ordered plain lo mein, egg fried rice with extra egg, egg drop soup, and sesame chicken.
AC: Oh, I was just REALLY horny. I just wanted to have sex with someone.
BuzzFeed: So, this tweet has prompted people to constantly ask you your "horny level" — I don't know if you've seen that.
AC: Ooooohhh, yes, what the hell. Is that what they're talking about? It hasn't stopped! I've been giving it no attention, but I see like two tweets.
BF: So the internet wants to know: What was your horny level when you made this tweet?
AC: Phhhhstt, TEN. No, TWENTY!
AC: Oh, I do. For real. I feel like maybe the little kids might not be up. It's weird because there's such a fine line I have to be careful with because I have so many people — I have mothers following me, grandmothers following me, I have little kids following me, I have fathers following me and watching me. So I don't know, I do love to get nasty at night.
BF: So what would you say your horny level was?
AC: Ten. I love to get nasty at night. My schedule with The Fantasticks was wake up, do a matinee, go eat some food, do another show, get back and shower, and then after the shower, that was my time to shine. My time to get nasty.
AC: It's to my fans. I see you. I'm observing everything you do. I read every one of my tweets. I go to your profile pics and I click on them. I scroll down and see if you're following me back or not. If I followed you and you don't follow me back, I'm gonna unfollow you.
[Aaron currently follows 99,915 people on Twitter].
AC: Oh god, that one. I have no idea what what the hell that meant. I was feeling myself that day. I woke up feeling good. What time was that at?
BF: 7:58 p.m., the early evening.
AC: 7:58 p.m.? Honestly, I think somebody might've even said something to me like, "You're Aaron Carter," and I was like, "Wait, I guess I am." It's like, no offense, but I like to flirt with a lot of girls, and I wish I could have hundreds of thousands of girlfriends. So that's kind of what that meant.
BF: I interpreted this as meaning there are so many ladies who want your attention, but you're like, "FYI, I'm Aaron Carter, so no thank you."
AC: No, it's not "no thank you" — it's more like, "give some time, baby."
AC: I was having a really good night. 1:17 a.m.? Yeah, I was having a really good night. Must've had a really good performance with The Fantasticks. I just came home and started having a little bit of fun, and decided to say HEHEHEHEHE.
AC: I think I saw a girl with big boobies at the show that night. You know, I'm 25, I'm not in a relationship, I'm just a ravenous creature right now. I love women. A lot. You know? I just have fun. I'm safe, you know?
BF: So you'd say your horny level for when you saw the big boobies was around an eight?
AC: Seven.
BF: You have a series of tweets that suggest you have a crush on Demi Lovato.
AC: Oh yeah...I do.
BF: Now when you think about Demi Lovato, on a scale of one to ten, what is your horny level?
AC: That's the kind of girl I like. Ten. It's a ten!
Photos by Macey J. Foronda