It was five years ago that the members of some of your favorite boy bands got some news that left them feeling...well, conflicted. Lou Pearlman, the Trans Continental Entertainment music mogul for Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, LFO, O-Town, and more, passed away in prison in 2016 while serving time for running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008. The Ponzi scheme was just one of his many outrageous scams, the biggest being the one he pulled on each of his groups.
Using shady language meant to trick and obscure, Lou Pearlman lured the youngsters into predatory contracts with the promise of huge success. Well, they got their success, but it would be years before they would see the money they were rightfully owed, and then only after some messy lawsuits. Naturally, his former clients had complicated feelings about his passing. Here's what former boy band members had to say about his death.
6 Lance Bass: "It Pissed Me Off That He Passed Away"
Lance Bass of *NSYNC was one of quite a few boy band members who stated that Lou Pearlman was touching them inappropriately during the time he was managing them. He spoke for a lot of Lou Pearlman's victims when he expressed having complicated feelings about Pearlman's death. On a 20/20 special, he said: "I was like, ‘How could you die right now when we don't have this closure? You need to apologize! Like, there are so many people who are waiting for you to realize what you did.' And it pissed me off that he passed away. You feel happy that no one else is going to be affected by him, and then you feel guilty because you feel that way. You loved him, you hated him, there are so many things that come out with Lou Pearlman."
5 AJ McLean: "There's Been A Little More Freedom"
Speaking to WGNA morning show hosts in 2019, AJ McLean, of the Backstreet Boys, said, "It's interesting. Since he's passed away, [there's] been a little more freedom to really say what most of us didn't want to say or couldn't say legally or whatever while he was in prison." He also expressed that despite the pain Pearlman had caused them, he still had gratitude for the places it led him. "Many emotions at the news of Lou's passing. Without Lou I wouldn't have met my four brothers or had the opportunity of a lifetime. RIP."
4 Justin Timberlake: "I Hope He Found Some Peace"
As the most successful of Lou Pearlman's former boy band members, Justin Timberlake's reaction to Lou Pearlman's death was one fans were waiting for with bated breath. He kept it short and simple, and though his message is respectful, there is no doubt much more to Justin's experience that he didn't want to rehash publicly. "I hope he found some peace. God bless and RIP, Lou Pearlman," the former *NSYNC frontman tweeted.
3 Aaron Carter: "It Hurts To See People Attack Him"
Okay, so he's not a boy band member, but Aaron Carter's career as a pop artist, often upstaged by his older brother, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, certainly made him boy band-adjacent. Aaron was also managed by Lou Pearlman and he's been more sympathetic to the late con artist than most of his other former clients. "My opinion of Lou being a sexual predator is that that is not true," Aaron Carter adamantly said in the documentary Lance Bass produced, The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story. "That is so foul. He's a pedophile? Shut up about that, guys. It just hurts, man, it hurts to see people continuously attack him, I go though the same thing," he said tearfully.
2 Rich Cronin: 'It Was All Dumb Luck'
Rich Cronin wasn't alive when Lou Pearlman died in 2016; the late LFO member died tragically in 2010 at the age of 36 due to complications with leukemia. Prior to his death, speaking on the music mogul, he expressed his opinion that Lou Pearlman just landed some dumb luck. "I just think he wanted cute guys around him; this was all an excuse," he said. "And then lightning crazily struck and an empire was created. It was all dumb luck. I think his motives for getting into music were very different."
1 Chris Kirkpatrick: "You Don't Know Whether To Cry, To Laugh"
Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC summed it up perfectly: "It was the most mixed emotions ever, you don't know whether to cry, to laugh." He continued, "There was so much wrong with everything about him and what happened that you don't know even how to take death." We hope Chris and all the other boy band members continue to heal and lean on each other for support around their unfortunate shared experiences.
