Lance Bass.Photo: Paul Archuleta/Getty
Lance Bassis spilling the tea about his finances back in the day as a member of*NSYNC.
During an appearance onSiriusXM’sThe Jess Cagle Showon Wednesday, Bass revealed that he made “way more” money after the group disbanded.
“The worst thing was people thinking we were rich because we were not,” Bass, 43, said. “We were famous but we were not rich. I made way more money after *NSYNC than I did during *NSYNC.”
He added of the band’s former manager, “Lou [Pearlman] really took the majority of all of our stuff. And the record label too. Horrible deals.”
In 2021, Bass made an appearance on thePEOPLE Every Day podcastand opened up about howhis personal experience with financesin the boy band influenced his business practices.
*NSYNC.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
When he joined *NSYNC, Bass said the financial side of the music industry eluded him. “You’re not thinking business when you’re starting at 16. You’re thinking, ‘I’m going to have fun. I’m going to make music and tour the world.'”
A 2019 documentary titledThe Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Storytracks Pearlman’s story from his childhood in Queens to the dizzying heights of managing mega-bands *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys,LFOand O-Town. The film also recounts his fall from grace after it was discovered that he perpetratedone of the largest Ponzi schemes in American historyand swindled earnings from the globally successful acts he managed.
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The doc included interviews with Bass and his former *NSYNC bandmatesJC ChasezandChris Kirkpatrick, as well asAJ McLeanof the Backstreet Boys, Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town and the lateAaron Carter.
At the time, Bass told PEOPLE that he remained disappointed that Pearlman never apologized for his crimes, even after he wassentenced to 25 years in federal prisonafter pleading guilty to charges of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud.
“I didn’t need an ‘I’m sorry’ to me, but I just wanted him to take responsibility and admit, ‘You know what, I did mess up.’ I really wanted to see a little remorse in him, but you could tell until his last days, he was just a true narcissist that really, truly believed in the things that he was saying,” the singer recalled. “I think he thought the world owed him a lot.”
source: people.com
