Convo Between Justin Timberlake & JC Chasez and Backstreet Boys Blew The Lid On Lou Perlman’s Creepy Behavior
It was an early conversation following a charity basketball game in Germany between *NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez and Backstreet Boys’ Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell that blew the lid off of Lou Perlman’s boy band schemes and creepy behavior.
“I don’t know what goes into the mind of Lou Perlman,” Lance Bass told Access Live in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. “The real reason he didn’t want us to be speaking was because if we did start talking then we would share stories and that’s what happened in Germany. We all started in Germany. And JC and Justin went to a McDonalds after a basketball game. We did a charity basketball game with Backstreet Boys and they were talking with Kevin and Brian. That’s when they started swapping stories for the first time and it all started unraveling.”
Lance revealed to Access Live’s Kit Hoover and Scott Evans that Perlman, who was the band’s manager and record label president, definitely had a creepy side and would do “pec checks” with the band before appearances.
“He was creepy. He had a creep effect. He was very touchy feely guy. He was always giving you shoulder rubs and all that and it was definitely creepy,” Lance shared. “He would tell all the guys before photo shoots that he minored in physical therapy and he could manipulate your muscles to make it look like your worked out,” Lance added.
In a blast from the pop past, *NSYNC is seen circa 1998 with highlights, shades and braids.
“Of course we would joke about it. I never felt threatened, but it was a little uncomfortable,” Lance said of the band’s chatter behind the scenes.
But Perlman’s roaming hands weren’t the only issue the band experienced. Perlman was scamming both boy bands — and Lance revealed the first day that they knew Perlman was being dishonest.
“I think we all knew at the same time. It was during our first check presentation. We had been working for three years and not gotten paid a dime,” Lance shared. “The group was making hundreds of millions of dollars. I was, of course, thinking the check could be a million dollars. A19-year-old finally falling into something like this would be life-changing…the lowest number I thought would be $200,000 and that would change my life for sure. We open up the check and it was $10,000.”
The measly $10,000 check tipped them off, but it was years before they would begin to untangle the complicated web. Lance is the co-producer of the new documentary film, “The Boy Band Con” and he revealed that *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys — all the boy bands Perlman managed were conned by him. And he admits, back when they first signed with him, it was pretty easy to be had.
“He was the president of our record label. Chris Kirkpatrick put the group together and he went to Lou Pearlman and asked if he would sign us. He said yeah. He was our manager and in his contract, he put himself as the sixth-member of all these groups. The way he sold it to us was, ‘if I’m the sixth member of your group, you don’t have to pay a lawyer, management fee, I will cover all of that.’ It was all a lie”
“Basically, he just took 90 percent of everything.”
