While the boy bands of the ’90s and early 2000s may have worked to keep up a clean-cut image, things weren’t always so innocent behind the scenes.
In the upcoming Investigation Discovery documentary Boy Band Confidential, produced by *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees reveals, “This is gonna sound super shady, but, like, when we first went out — I remember in our first tour — someone at the label gave us a book and it was the age of consent in every state in the country. And, like, we kept that book on the tour bus.”
By way of explanation, Nick adds, “Unfortunately, there were people out there looking to tear you down.”
And the pressure to stay on top was so intense, Nick says, that there was little thought given to the emotional state of the group members — not just in 98 Degrees, but industrywide.
“You’ll see a [Justin] Bieber cancel a tour. You’ll see a Shawn Mendes cancel a tour because ‘my mental health needs to come first,’” notes Nick. “That was not an option when we were out there.”
“You went out there and you did the show and you came back after the show and you broke down and you cried and you kicked a hole in the wall, or you did whatever you had to do,” he says. “But you didn’t bow out. You work so hard to get there, you can’t let your foot off the gas.”
In addition to Joey, Nick and 98 Degrees’ Jeff Timmons, the doc features Lance Bass, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean and members of Boyz II Men, O-Town and LFO. Boy Band Confidential airs April 13 and April 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ID, and streams on HBO Max.
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