Lance Bass Reveals He Earned Just $35 A Day During NSYNC Peak
During the height of *NSYNC’s massive global success, singer Lance Bass earned just $35 a day in per diem pay and received an initial $10,000 check after years of chart-topping albums and sold-out tours, billboard.com reported.
Speaking on The Zach Sang Show, the 47-year-old singer pushed back against public assumptions that the boy band’s era left him wealthy. Bass recalled being told to be grateful for the lump sum because he had effectively been working for free for two to three years. He stated that the band’s record label and late manager, Lou Pearlman, collected the vast majority of the profits.
Pearlman, who assembled both *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, was convicted in 2008 of conspiracy, money laundering, and bankruptcy fraud for running a Ponzi scheme. He died in prison in 2016.
Despite the group’s commercial footprint, Bass stated that no one set the members up for life after that. The singer noted that while he continues to receive residuals, the payments are not much, and he generated significantly more personal wealth after the group went on hiatus in 2002. When asked whether he still harbors resentment over the financial shortfall, Bass told the program that he no longer feels anger, though he maintains the group was shortchanged.
These financial disclosures stand in stark contrast to the band’s chart history. *NSYNC remains among the best-selling musical acts in Billboard history, anchored by their 2000 studio album No Strings Attached. That release shifted a record 2.4 million copies in its opening week—a milestone that stood for 15 years—and held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. The album’s commercial dominance was driven by signature singles including “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the latter of which captured the Billboard Hot 100 top spot during the summer of 2000. Their subsequent 2001 album, Celebrity, also debuted at No. 1, while the No Strings Attached tour grossed over $70 million. The quintet later reunited for a new single, “Better Place,” in 2023.
Bass previously addressed the disparity between their fame and bank accounts during a 2023 appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, noting that the group was famous yet not rich at the time.
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