NEW YORK: Singer Lance Bass has revealed that he made "hardly any money" during his time with *NSYNC.
The 47-year-old singer was part of the wildly popular boy band alongside JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Justin Timberlake from 1995 until their indefinite hiatus in 2002.
Speaking on The Zach Sang Show, Bass shared that in the early years, he and his bandmates lived off a per diem of just US$35 (about RM143) a day.
He added that their actual earnings were far lower than what people assumed.
He said: "We had a per diem of US$35 a day.
"Our first cheque was a US$10,000 cheque after years of number one albums and sellout tours. I don't know how many millions they made off of merchandise because merchandise was insane.
"And then they finally gave us a cheque for US$10,000. You're like, 'Oh, thanks. We should be grateful for that, been working for free for two, three years now.'"
Bass explained that even today, the group's back catalogue does not generate much income for the five members.
He added: "You get residuals, for sure, but it's not much. It's so weird how people think I'm so filthy rich from *NSYNC. No. Not at all. I did well after *NSYNC, and I'm very proud of everything I did after that, but I didn't make money with *NSYNC, hardly at all."
Most of the money went to the group's record label and their former manager, the late Lou Pearlman — who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008 for conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during bankruptcy proceedings.
Calling Pearlman "one of the biggest scam artistes of all time," Bass admitted that he used to feel deep resentment towards the manager and the record label, especially as the band felt unprotected.
He said: "I was mad at the adults in the room. The adults in the room saying, 'You're just a kid, you're fine. Dance, land on your knees. You're young, you don't need to sleep, you're a kid.'
"Well, who cares if you're young? You still need to make a living and set yourself up for the future 'cause most of these cases, it's a finite time of being able to do something like that, and no one set us up for life after that. We had to do it all ourselves after it was over."
When *NSYNC eventually split, the members had to "start over" while dealing with the stigma surrounding boy bands at the time.
Bass added: "You were looked at as less than, you were made fun of. So try parlaying a career after being in a band like that where no one took you seriously."
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