"I'm just totally floored by this," Carter tells PEOPLE. "Other people suspected he had a problem, but I denied it and didn't believe it. But now I feel hurt and betrayed, because I see that everything wasn't what I thought it was."
Carter believes that his son was heading to Georgia to confront him about finances at the time of his arrest. "His new managers are trying to convince him that I'm the reason he's going broke," he says. "It's not true; I don't live off Aaron's money."
He adds that he hopes this will serve as a wake-up call to the 20-year-old star. "Aaron has always thought he was invincible," he says. "Sometimes it takes a knock in the head to get people back on track. I hope that's what happens here."
Having reached out to Aaron since his arrest, Carter pledges to help his son with anything he needs. "The bottom line is that I love my son very much," he says. "It's important that he knows that I will do anything for him."
Meanwhile, elder brother and Backstreet Boy Nick learned about the arrest while on tour in Australia. "He tried to call me this morning, but I had my phone off. I hope Nick can help talk some sense into Aaron," Carter says.
The Carter family has had a fractious relationship over the years. In 2003, Aaron alleged that his mother, Jane, had removed more than $100,000 from his bank account without permission. The next year, Jane was arrested and charged with battery for beating up Bob Carter's new girlfriend. In 2006, Aaron and Nick got into a fistfight before the premiere of their reality show, House of Carters. "We've had some very tough times," says Bob Carter. "There's a lot of pitfalls to growing up in the public eye."
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