‘Larger than Life’ boy band doc top bombshells: Prison performances, drugs, stolen money and purity rings
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Famed boy bands enjoy sung their map into followers’ hearts for a protracted time, alongside with The Beatles, Jackson 5, The Osmonds, Contemporary Children on the Block, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Korean pop crew BTS and heaps more artists.
The Paramount+ documentary “Better Than Existence: Reign of the Boybands” uncovered the highs and lows of the sinful song industry.
Fan favorites, corresponding to Donnie Wahlberg from Contemporary Children on the Block, Lance Bass from *NSYNC, AJ McClean from the Backstreet Boys and more admitted their struggles on their rise to status at a younger age, performing in prisons, battling with substances and having hundreds of thousands of greenbacks stolen.
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Contributors of Contemporary Children on the Block and *NSYNC participated within the documentary “Better Than Existence: Reign of the Boybands.” (Michel Linssen/Redferns/Bob Berg/Getty Footage)
Here are the head bombshells from “Better Than Existence: Reign of the Boybands.”
Performing in every single space, from prisons to birthday events
Donnie Wahlberg from Contemporary Children on the Block admitted there were challenges with rising to status on the kind of younger age. He changed into 15 years previous when he joined the band.
“When Contemporary Children were fashioned, Maurice Starr changed into trying for any person that could well even utter, dance and rap,” Wahlberg acknowledged within the documentary. “Maurice nearly purchased arrested for utilizing around colleges trying for younger white kids.”
Starr, born with the title Larry Curtis Johnson, is an American musician simplest identified for his manufacturing work for boy bands Contemporary Model and Contemporary Children on the Block.
“Maurice potentially saved my existence. I changed into bussed to college in Boston, one block from the set up Contemporary Model grew up in Orchard Park… they made the leisure appear seemingly to me. Literally, within a year of that, I changed into meeting their producer Maurice Starr and creating Contemporary Children on the Block.”
Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg and Jonathan Knight of Contemporary Children On The Block pose behind the curtain all the map by a circa 1990 concert. (Getty Footage)
Wahlberg defined how his brother Label changed into the finest other member of Contemporary Children on the Block in the starting up. On the other hand, after the actor’s departure, Wahlberg introduced his mates into the song crew.
“We performed in prisons, excessive colleges, birthday events, parks, we performed in bars that we were too younger to be in. We performed in every single space,” Wahlberg famend.
A video clip changed into viewed within the documentary the set up a reporter requested the boy band, “How carry out you feel about being dubbed the white Contemporary Model or The Osmonds.”
Where a younger Wahlberg replied, “We’re no longer the white Contemporary Model, we’re no longer The Osmonds, we’re Contemporary Children on the Block.”
“We performed in prisons, excessive colleges, birthday events, parks, we performed in bars that we were too younger to be in. We performed in every single space.”
— Donnie Wahlberg
When Contemporary Children on the Block launched their 2d album, the celebrated song crew purchased better than 6 million copies of their hit single “Step by Step.”
“With the Step by Step album, these guys were love a money prepare,” one song educated acknowledged.
When Contemporary Children on the Block launched their 2d album, the celebrated song crew purchased better than 6 million copies of their hit single “Step by Step.” (Michel Linssen/Redferns)
On the other hand, the documentary defined how the crew began to feel “burnt out” and “it wasn’t regarding the song anymore, it changed into regarding the marketing.”
Wahlberg persisted, “The success changed into so grand… we were grateful for it, and we furthermore struggled with it.”
“Having of us continuously screaming and yelling… when all of it stopped. I regarded within the mediate and checked out myself… I saw Donnie Wahlberg at 18. Attempting support, I hadn’t grown in masses of programs. In some unspecified time in the future, we simply desired to develop as human beings.”
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Partying, tablets and rehab
Whereas the boy bands navigated stardom, several people purchased into the partying standard of living.
Backstreet Boy member AJ McClean confessed he struggled with burnout and virtually hit rock bottom.
Backstreet Boy member AJ McClean confessed he went by a “darkish time” and nearly hit rock bottom. (Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Footage)
“2001 changed into a terribly darkish time. We had toured for nine years straight, simply ‘perambulate on tour, originate an album, perambulate on tour, originate an album,’ and rather than facing my precise emotions or my feelings, roughly purchased caught up within the standard of living and the partying… ingesting… tablets,” McClean admitted on the documentary.
“It wasn’t except I did something I told myself I would never carry out, which changed into drink onstage. That’s when I even needed to know love, ‘K… something’s no longer correct.’ The day that I flew from tour into rehab, everybody changed into simply at their wits slay.”
One Direction singer, Liam Payne, died on Oct. 16. He changed into 31. (Kate Green/Getty Footage)
The boy band One Direction changed into spoken about within the documentary, nonetheless the death of band member Liam Payne changed into no longer. The One Direction singer died on Oct. 16. He changed into 31.
Payne died as a “results of the autumn he suffered from the balcony of the third floor room of the resort within the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo the set up he changed into staying,” per the Nationwide Prison and Correctional Prosecutor’s Verbalize of enterprise No. 16, like a flash headed by Marcelo Roma.
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In October, Payne’s initial toxicology memoir changed into launched and listed that one or more tablets were in his design.
The preliminary memoir “suggested proof of exposure to cocaine,” an legitimate told the Associated Press on the time, ahead of declaring that the initial results weren’t an simply reading of the quantity that changed into circulating in his blood on the time of his death.
A preliminary autopsy memoir revealed that Payne died from “polytrauma” and “an inside of and exterior hemorrhage” after falling from the third-floor balcony of his resort.
One Direction, from left, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan attending a press convention for “The X Ingredient.” (Yui Mok/PA Footage by technique of Getty Footage)
Investigators chanced on narcotics and alcohol inside of Payne’s resort room amid damaged objects and furnishings, per the AP.
In 2008, Payne changed into chanced on by Simon Cowell while auditioning for “The X Ingredient” when he changed into 14. Despite being within the reduction of, he returned to the record two years later and joined Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson to originate a supergroup that later placed third within the competition.
One Direction signed with Cowell after “The X Ingredient” and changed into one of the bestselling boy bands of all time.
$300 million Ponzi map
As boy bands *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys stars were on the upward thrust, they were unwillingly phase of a $300 million Ponzi map by their supervisor.
The bands’ creator and supervisor, Lou Pearlman, mishandled the crew’s finances all the map by their rise to status.
“We’re working with out cost for these guys,” *NSYNC band member Lance Bass remarked.
From left, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick, Justin Timberlake and Joey Fatone of *NSYNC (Bob Berg/Getty Footage)
Bass defined the aim Pearlman saved the two celebrated boy bands apart changed into so they didn’t “resolve out… how unpleasant the deal” they signed changed into.
“If we were to know [Backstreet Boys] and had precise friendships with them and were ready to debate industry, we would’ve realized very like a flash that we were all getting screwed.”
Backstreet Boy member McClean added, “[Lou] changed into the 1/6 member, the leisure we purchased paid, the leisure we did, he purchased, even supposing he wasn’t lifting a finger… We were generating him so grand money. It changed into crazy.”
Boy bands *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were unwillingly phase of a $300 million Ponzi map by their late supervisor, Lou Pearlman. (Label Weiss/WireImage)
Pearlman confronted a total bunch of lawsuits from different boy bands, alongside with *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.
The entertainment ’s $300 million Ponzi map by his Trans Continental companies changed into uncovered in 2006. He changed into convicted of fraud in 2008.
Pearlman died on the age of 62 in penal complex while serving a 25-year sentence.
WATCH: *NSYNC’S CHRIS KIRKPATRICK DOESN’T KNOW WHY HE WAITED SO LONG TO MOVE TO ‘BEAUTIFUL’ NASHVILLE
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Tattoo bans and purity rings
The boy band people furthermore mentioned how they were told it changed into necessary for them to characterize a obvious image.
Artists alongside with *NSYNC and the Jonas Brothers needed to note “crazy boy band tips.”
“No one can enjoy tattoos,” Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC acknowledged within the documentary.
Botton, Kevin Richardson, and from left, AJ McLean, Gash Carter, Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys (Getty Footage)
Within the intervening time, McClean from Backstreet Boys added that managers told, “That you just would possibly’t be ‘elephantine avenue.’ That’s no longer intellectual.”
“By no system enjoy a drink to your hand, or a cigarette,” *NSYNC’s Bass chimed in.
One other rule changed into “no girlfriends,” because it can well well “rob away the dream of the followers.”
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Kevin, Joe and Gash Jonas were all required to position on a purity ring. (David Livingston/Getty Footage)
When the Jonas Brothers changed into eminent, the band people “weren’t allowed to chat about intercourse.”
Kevin, Joe and Gash Jonas were furthermore all required to position on a purity ring.
In 2019, the Jonas Brothers were left speechless all the map by a radio interview after their friend and fellow musician Miley Cyrus requested them a extraordinarily deepest quiz.
Cyrus, who formerly dated Gash, requested regarding the brothers’ purity rings, which they wore to record their intent to cease virgins except marriage, in the starting up of their careers.
“Did it feel simply within the slay taking off your purity rings?” she acknowledged on London’s radio record Capital Breakfast.
Joe laughed and answered: “Yeah!” He then simply purchased married to “Game of Thrones” actress Sophie Turner in a shotgun Las Vegas ceremony. Joe filed for divorce from Turner in 2023.