Lance Bass was in one of the biggest pop groups of the ‘90s, with ‘N Sync selling out tours and landing on the top of the music charts. But, the musician is now revealing that his life as a pop star was not as rich and glamorous as fans assumed it to be.
The 43-year-old recently appeared on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” and spoke about the amount of money he made while in the band.
When host Jess Cagle asked Bass to share the best and worst parts about being “rich and famous really young,” the ‘N Sync singer gave a surprising answer.
Bass replied, “Well, the worst thing is people thinking that we were rich, because we were not. Lou (Pearlman) took all of our money,” referring to the group’s creator and former manager.
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He continued, “We were famous, but we were not rich. I made way more money after ‘N Sync than I did during ‘N Sync. He really took (a) majority of all of our stuff.”
He added that the record label played a role as well.
“Horrible, horrible deals,” he said.
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But, Bass still looks back on his memories with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone fondly.
“To do that, with those guys, it was incredible. And you had some of the best experiences ever. Obviously, it changed my life, led me to so many things I wanted to do in life,” he said.
The television personality mentioned performing with Aerosmith for the Super Bowl halftime show as one of the standout performances in their career.
“Just a lot of pinch-me moments,” he shared. “Where you’re just like, ‘Really? I got to do that. How freaking cool.’”
He also credited the band’s support system for helping him stay grounded when he became famous at just 16 years old.
Bass explained, “I’m glad I was in a band because I had four of my brothers that kept you down to earth. If you said anything off the wall, they would just slap you down like, ‘What did you just say?’”
He pointed out that solo artists can be surrounded by yes men who agree to everything.
“But with a group, we had a great family unit around us, we were held down to earth,” he said.
However, the quintet faced some scary moments at the peak of their fame. “There would be times where thousands of people would surround your bus or camp out at your hotel,” he said. Some even chased them or tried to rip their hair out.
“You go through some crazy stuff,” he concluded.
Bass has publicly opened up about the difficulties the band faced and Pearlman’s impact on their careers before. He stopped by TODAY in 2019 to speak about the documentary “The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story,” which Bass appeared in and produced.
The film tackled the rise and fall of the music manager, who was also responsible for creating the Backstreet Boys.
In 2008, Pearlman admitted to defrauding thousands of people, according to Variety. The businessman was operating a $300 million Ponzi scheme. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
He died in August 2016 at the age of 62 while serving his sentence.
At the time, Timberlake tweeted, “I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
