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*NSYNC fans were (still are) heartbroken when the boyband went on an indefinite hiatus after Justin Timberlake put out his first solo album, and now we're getting a closer look inside what exactly happened, as some of the band's members are speaking out in the new Paramount+ documentary, LARGER THAN LIFE: REIGN OF THE BOYBANDS.
Lance Bass remembered, "2002 was our last tour. Justin was going to start his solo album which we were super supportive of. I thought that was a great idea. The label told us, 'Look, come back in six months,' and we were supposed to go right into the next album. And that just never happened." He added that *NSYNC was "just phased out without any fanfare at all, no goodbye. We just never got back together."
Chris Kirkpatrick recalled of the unplanned hiatus, "It was hard. There was a lot of animosity at first. There was a lot of anger. There was a lot of resentment. I remember thinking, 'Are we ever getting back together again?'" Bass added, "It was just a very confusing part of our life right there because we didn’t know what was happening."
Manager Johnny Wright said that after Timberlake's debut solo album, Justified, took off, it was hard to go back to the band. He explained, "From Justin's standpoint, when he’s got the No. 1 album in the country and he’s got offers to tour the world, it’s like, how do you come back to that? I’ve got to fulfill this. It’s not that I’m saying goodbye, I just can’t stop this."
Lance said that Justin going solo wasn't what was upsetting, noting, "Business-wise, I get that. Justin has the most talent in the world and we wanted to give him that respect. But, tell us that."
LARGER THAN LIFE: REIGN OF THE BOYBANDS takes a deep dive into the evolution of boy bands, going all the way back to the influence of The Beatles, and even touching on the incredible rise of K-pop, while also shining the spotlight on many of our favorite boybands like *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Hanson, New Edition, New Kids On The Block, and more, and is now streaming on Paramount+.