Lance Bass says he received a daily allowance of $35 while NSYNC was one of the biggest acts in the world, and that the group’s first cheque was for $10,000. “People think I’m so filthy rich from NSYNC, but no,” he said.
Lance Bass has described how little he says he earned during the rise of *NSYNC, Billboard reported.
The singer, 47, was speaking on The Zach Sang Show.
What He Said
“We had a per diem: $35 a day,” Bass said. “Our first check was a $10,000 check after years of No. 1 albums, sellout tours.”
He recalled being told to be grateful for it: “You’ve been working for free for two, three years now.”
“People think I’m so filthy rich from *NSYNC, but no,” he said. “Not at all. I didn’t make money with *NSYNC, like, hardly at all.”
He said he still receives residual payments, but “it’s not much”, and that he earned far more after the band went on hiatus in 2002.
Where He Says the Money Went
Bass alleged that most of the money went to “the label” and to the group’s late manager, Lou Pearlman.
Pearlman, who was behind both *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, was convicted in 2008 of money laundering, conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud in connection with a long-running Ponzi scheme. He died in prison in 2016.
Asked whether he was still resentful, Bass said “not anymore”. But he added: “No one set us up for life after that.”
These are Bass’s own claims. The report did not include a response from the group’s former label.
How Big NSYNC Was
The claims contrast sharply with the group’s commercial record, as set out by Billboard:
- The 2000 album No Strings Attached sold a then-record 2.4 million copies in its first week, a mark that stood for 15 years
- It spent eight weeks at number one on the Billboard 200
- “It’s Gonna Be Me” gave the group its only Billboard Hot 100 number one
- The 2001 album Celebrity also debuted at number one
- The No Strings Attached tour grossed more than $70 million
Not the First Time
Bass rose to fame alongside Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone. The group reunited briefly for a single, “Better Place”, in 2023.
He has spoken about the band’s finances before. “We were famous, but we were not rich,” he said in a radio interview in 2023.
Image: Lance Bass on stage in 2019 (file photo). Photo by Tomás Del Coro via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
