Lance Bass Says Producing ‘The Boy Band Con’ Is The “Best Psychiatry Visit I’ve Ever Had”

For boy band fans, such as myself, the new documentary The Boy Band Con shines a light on one of our favorite topics…as well as the heinous crimes that came along with the catchy pop songs of 20 years ago. The YouTube Premium doc, produced by *NSYNC’s Lance Bass himself, and directed by Aaron Kunkel, explains how Lou Pearlman began his earliest schemes, all the way through stealing money from the bands he created — and when that still wasn’t enough, innocent retirees, as well.

Decider jumped on the phone with Bass and Kunkel this week to get their take on the reaction to the film, what was really going on with that *NSYNC vs. BSB rivalry, and the next documentary they plan to work on together.

DECIDER: Congrats that the movie is finally out, how does it feel? 

Lance Bass: We’re very excited it’s out now. We’ve been talking about this for two years. Finally people are able to watch it and the reaction has been incredible.

Aaron Kunkel: We’ve been waiting anxiously for today and it’s awesome that it’s here.

You’ve been talking about it and screening it, but does it bring up relief or memories you’ve pushed away? What’s the emotional aspect to it been like? 

LB: This was definitely an emotional project to work on, especially when it’s something so close to your life. I have to say, it was very cathartic. I actually feel at peace with the whole situation. This was very good for me to go through. I feel like it was the best psychiatry visit I’ve ever had.

There’s a lot about this guy that wasn’t just boy bands and we meet these other people that unfortunately lost a lot of money, their life savings, their retirement, because of him. In telling his life story, what didn’t make it in that was still interesting, but just didn’t make the final cut?

AK: There’s a lot, I think our first cut of it was almost three hours. Both the bands [*NSYNC and Backstreet Boys] started by going to Europe before they got big, there was a lot of that that we had to streamline to try to keep the story as concise as possible. There are lots of stories along the way that we’ve been telling in Q&As, but that we just had to drop out. Bigger stories to little interesting and fun lies. Like the fact that Lou would tell them when he’d buy TCBY yogurt that it stood for “Trans Continental Yogurt.” There’s so many things like that that we love that ended up having to get cut for time.

In having boy bands and also the other people that he scammed, was it hard to find the right balance between the fun things and the super depressing things and to make sure the tone was right throughout?

AK: We definitely wanted to balance that. We knew that this story was going to get dark, so we wanted to make sure that it had lighter moments, too. Dave Holmes is amazing at adding the lighter side to the film, especially in the first half hour. We also wanted it to mirror everyone’s actual experience with Lou. Most people would see him first as a fun and jovial guy and times were great, then it would always turn bad. We needed to show both sides of it, so you could accurately understand what everyone went through and who Lou was.

Nikki DeLoach talking about the tanning bed situation really creeped me out. Was that surprising to you? Or were there other crazy moments that stood out that you didn’t know?

LB: Those things, I personally knew because I’ve been hearing those stories. Everyone was always talking about how he had cameras all through his house. We all kind of were warned about that early on. The thing that surprised me most in doing this film was finding out a lot about his childhood and hearing that he would steal from people like [childhood friend] Alan Gross, take their life stories and create them as his own to impress other people. That’s when you started seeing this little Lou kid start creating this whole character just because he wanted people to like him.

The Aaron Carter interview is a bit different from some of the rest. He was so passionate and got really worked up when discussing and defending Lou. What was it like in the room for that and editing that?

AK: We definitely always wanted Aaron to be in the film. We didn’t know how ardently he was going to defend Lou. We are really happy that we got that dissenting point, because we wanted to make sure we told everyone’s story, no matter how they felt. It was really interesting in the interview and in the edit. I think what it comes down to is that Aaron really exemplifies how a lot of these guys saw Lou as a father figure. Especially since he had been with him since he was six or seven years old, you can see that Lou is such an important, parental figure in his life and he felt like he really, really wanted to defend him. We’re glad we had that voice in the film.

I personally enjoyed how honest the film is about the *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys rivalry. We knew it was there but it was sort of seen through the fans more than the actual bands. Lance, what was that like from your perspective?

LB: As long as we were working as a band, we never really ran into the Backstreet Boys that much. We would always kind of steer clear of them if we were at an awards show. To me, our reasons for not speaking were completely different from the fans choosing a side. To them, it was a fun “Choose your own sporting team” and it was fun to cheer them on and wish them well. With us, it wasn’t about “I want to compete with you and keep beating you in the charts,” it was, “Wow, there’s a lot of bad blood between the bands because this man has been telling us that y’all hate us.” For no other reason than just to hate us. So our reasons for not speaking were completely different from what the fans thought.

And now everybody’s friends! I like that almost every group is represented in this as well and got to say their perspective on things.

LB: We’re a family. Trans Con actually brought all of us altogether in one weird way or another and now we’re all bonded for life.

What’s the experience been doing these Q&A’s and having it at SXSW? Have you heard from fans or even other people that knew him? Have other things come to light since it’s been completed?

LB: Yeah, a lot of people come out of the woodwork after the fact that want to now say their piece, so we could easily have a second doc of all these people who want to speak their truths now. We love the people that we were able to get in this film. We were very happy that the people in the film trusted us to tell the right story and the reaction we’re getting from everyone watching the film has been just been kind of like shock and awe. What’s great is, everyone says, “I have to watch it again.” That’s such a good sign, especially for a doc, if you want to watch it again. Because that means you were completely interested in it. People just want to talk about it afterwards.

AK: It’s been great to hear from fans and even from people who were in the doc and who lived this, so many of them said, “I thought I knew what happened back then, but it went so much deeper and so much further than I ever thought it did.”

In doing this experience, have you guys talked about working together again on a different project?

AK: Yeah definitely, that’s the hope if Lance will have me!

LB: We’re definitely going to be working on something together. Our next project in the doc world, we want to tackle the subject of the environment together.

AK: It’s something we both really care about and we want to make something that helps inspire people to make the planet a better place.

Lance, I love that your mom kept all those albums with photos and fan letters. Where does she keep that stuff? 

LB: I have no idea. That was a surprise to me that she had those albums. Maybe they’re up in the attic? I don’t know where she would put them.

Your attitude throughout the whole thing, in talking to her and your other interview, feels very positive and like there had already been some relief on your part. Was there a point where you did feel relieved about Lou before this documentary? 

LB: No, I never really felt that until I was done with my first interview. What you see with my mom, we picked that up at the very, very, very end, after we had been shooting for months. That was actually me on vacation. At that point, I had already sat down with all the interviews and I really started feeling at ease with everything after all the rehashing of the last 20 years of my life. So at that point, I think you see relief on our faces where we can almost have a nervous laugh over it.

Where to stream The Boy Band Con