Lance Bass claimed he received a per diem of just $35 a day while rising to fame with *NSYNC.
The former boy bander said on Thursday’s episode of “The Zach Sang Show” that “our first check was for $10,000,” noting that the incredibly low amount came after “years of number one albums” and “sold-out tours.”
“I don’t know how many millions I made on merchandise because the merchandise was crazy,” he recalls.
Bass claimed that when he and his bandmates — Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone — “finally” received a check for $10,000, they were told, “You should be grateful for this.” You’ve been working for free for two, three years now. »
As for his current situation, Bass, now 47, said that while he was “for sure” getting residuals, “it’s not much.”
“People think I’m so rich from *NSYNC, but no,” he insisted. “No way.”
Although Bass said he “did well” after the band’s hiatus in 2002 and was “very proud of everything he did after that,” he doubled down.
“I didn’t make any money from *NSYNC, almost none at all,” he said of the group formed in 1995.
Bass further alleged that while he and his bandmates didn’t make a fortune from their talents, “the label” and Lou Pearlman — their infamous late musical director — “made a ton of it.”
Pearlman, who was ultimately imprisoned in 2008 after being convicted of money laundering, bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy, died in prison in 2016.
When asked if the singer felt “resentment” over the allegedly low income, he said “not anymore” – but admitted he felt cheated.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘You’re young, you’re young,’” he recalls. “Well, who cares if you’re young? You still have to earn a living and prepare for the future because (in) most of these cases, it takes a limited amount of time to be able to do something like that, and no one prepares us for life after that.”
This isn’t the first time Bass has claimed he was wronged during his tenure in the world-famous band “Bye Bye Bye.”
In 2023, Bass called people thinking they were rich from the band’s success the “worst thing.”
“We were famous, but we weren’t rich,” he confessed during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show.”
“I made a lot more money after *NSYNC than during *NSYNC.”
Still, he said, “obviously” being in the boy band at the height of his fame changed his life and his trajectory.
“We had a great support system,” he said. “I’m glad I was in a band, because I had four of my brothers keeping you grounded.”
Gn entert
