Celebrity
Lance Bass & Chris Kirkpatrick Recall “Resentment” After *NSYNC Split
The band went “bye, bye, bye” for 20 years.
*NSYNC’s Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick are reflecting on the group’s initial hiatus, which was supposed to last for six months, but ended up lasting two decades.
In the new Paramount+ documentary, Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands, Bass and Kirkpatrick recall taking a break from *NSYNC in 2002 along with fellow bandmates Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, and JC Chasez. While they thought a hiatus “was a great idea” at the time, neither Bass nor Kirkpatrick had anticipated the band’s future.
“2002 was our last tour. Justin [Timberlake] was going to start his solo album, which we were super supportive of,” Bass said. “The label told us, ‘Look, come back in six months,’ and we were supposed to go right into the next album.”
However, it would be 20 years until the band finally reunited on stage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. “It just phased out without any fanfare at all,” he continued. “With no goodbye. We just never got back together.”
Speaking in the doc, Kirkpatrick said the extended hiatus “was hard” to navigate. “There was a lot of animosity at first,” he said. “There was a lot of anger. There was a lot of resentment. I remember thinking, ‘Are we ever getting back together again?’”
Bass also admitted that, while he knew Timberlake’s solo success played a huge part in the prolonged hiatus, he didn’t agree with how the break was handled. “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,” he said.
The band’s former manager, Johnny Wright, also discussed Timberlake’s solo career in the Paramount+ documentary, explaining that it didn’t make sense for him to rejoin *NSYNC at the time.
“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,” Wright said.
*NSYNC’s Comeback
As mentioned, the band reunited at the 2023 MTV VMAs, after which they released the comeback single “Better Place,” which was featured on the Trolls Band Together movie soundtrack.
More recently, in January 2024, Timberlake teased that *NSYNC had been “in the studio” during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “It’s kind of crazy, there’s so much that just picks up where it left off, as far as the chemistry,” he said, adding that “a little something” might be on the way for fans.
