Former boyband member Lance Bass was part of *NSYNC a popular group of the ’90s, where they had sell-out tours and chart-topping hits.

However the 43-year-old recently revealed that life as a pop star was not as rich and glamorous as it appears. Appearing on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show”, Bass revealed about his finances while in the band.

Surprising revelation from Lance Bass

Jess Cagle asked the pop star to share the best and worst parts about being “rich and famous really young,” and the *NSYNC singer gave a surprising answer.

Bass replied, “Well, the worst thing is people thinking that we were rich, because we were not. Lou (Pearlman) took all of our money,” referring to the group’s creator and former manager.

He continued, “We were famous, but we were not rich. I made way more money after *NSYNC than I did during *NSYNC He really took (a) majority of all of our stuff.”

He added that the record label played a role as well.

Pearlman handled the band’s finances

“Horrible, horrible deals,” he said.

Responsible for the debut of *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, Pearlman was sued by both bands and was sentenced in 2008 to 25 years imprisonment in a $300 million Ponzi scheme. In a third into his sentence, Pearlman died in prison due to cardiac arrest.

According to Lance Bass, he recalled receiving his first paycheque from Pearlman after two years of touring and album promotion. The $10,000 did not even touch minimum wage, according to Bass in “The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story” .

Performing with Aerosmith

Despite being in the “biggest band in the world” Bass could not even afford his apartment at that time, as relayed to ABC’s “20/20” in 2019.