Lance Bass Says *NSYNC Made Him Famous But 'Not Rich' Due To 1 Major Problem

Lance Bass remembers *NSYNC  making him famous — but “not rich.”

The former boy band member said on Wednesday’s episode of “The Jess Cagle Show,” that *NSYNC opened doors and left him with lifelong memories, but now-late manager Lou Pearlman essentially robbed the band members blind.

“The worst thing is people thinking that we were rich, ’cause we were not,” he told Cagle . “Lou took all our money. We were famous, but we were not rich. I made way more money after *NSYNC than I did during *NSYNC. I mean, he really took the majority of all our stuff.”

Pearlman, the boy band mastermind behind *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys , was sued by members of both bands  and was sentenced in 2008 to 25 years imprisonment in a $300 million Ponzi scheme . He died in prison of cardiac arrest about a third into his sentence.

Bass previously recalled getting his first check from Pearlman after two years of touring and album promotion. He said in “The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story” that the $10,000 payment “didn’t even touch minimum wage.” He couldn’t even afford his apartment during a time when *NSYNC reigned as “the biggest band in the world,” he told ABC’s “20/20”  in 2019.

Still, Bass recalled his time as a young superstar fondly.

“To do that with those guys, it was incredible,” Bass said Wednesday. “And you had some of the best experiences ever. I mean, obviously it changed my life, led me to so many things I wanted to do in life. Moments like performing with Aerosmith at the Super Bowl halftime show , my favorite band.”

Bass also hailed his bandmates — Chris Kirkpatrick , Justin Timberlake , Joey Fatone and JC Chasez — who made for “a great family unit” and kept him grounded.

*NSYNC went on an indefinite hiatus in 2002 and reunites only for landmark occasions.  Bass has written a New York Times bestselling autobiography, invested in a West Hollywood bar and formed a music management company.

“The work ethic I got from *NSYNC, I cherish,” Bass told Cagle.