*NSYNC: Lance Bass reveals – just $35 daily allowance in the early years

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents *NSYNC: Lance Bass reveals – just $35 daily allowance in the early years.

35 dollars a day. For a band that conquered teen hearts with "Bye Bye Bye" and "It's Gonna Be Me" and topped charts worldwide. Sounds absurd? It is – and NSYNC star Lance Bass has now revealed himself how meager things really were behind the scenes of the boy band in the early years.

On the web talk show "Zach Sang Show," the now 47-year-old shared that the five musicians initially celebrated success in Europe and later also in the US – but had to get by on a daily allowance of just $35 a day. Alongside Bass, the band includes Justin Timberlake (45), JC Chasez (50), Joey Fatone (49) and Chris Kirkpatrick (54). What sounds like an intern's pay was apparently the daily reality for one of the most successful pop groups in the world.

It stings all the more in retrospect when you think about the millions the band's merchandise is said to have brought in. For you, that means: the guys shared the fame with millions of fans, but apparently got barely a slice of the pie.

What Lance Bass reported in the podcast

The singer spoke openly about the time when the band was already on the big stage – and still had to get by on $35 a day. After two to three years of number-one albums and sold-out tours, the first "real" check finally came: $10,000. Split five ways, mind you.

We had a daily allowance: $35 a day. Our first check was a check for $10,000 after years of number-one albums and sold-out tours.

Why the merchandise angle is so spicy

NSYNC wasn't just a band – they were a brand. T-shirts, posters, keychains, fan merchandise of every kind: the merchandise is said to have raked in millions. But on that front, if you read between the lines of Bass's words, the musicians themselves had the least to do with it. The $35 a day stands as a symbol for an era when the five were on stage while the big money apparently landed somewhere else.

The numbers that stick

Put the few facts side by side and a clear picture emerges: $35 a day in allowance, two to three years of waiting, then $10,000 as the first check – and in parallel, merchandise millions that apparently bypassed the band. What exactly the contracts said and who ultimately got what, the source doesn't reveal. What's clear is: from Lance Bass's perspective, that math still feels bitter to this day.

Lance Bass is 47 today, the band is decades behind – and his story shows that even the biggest pop stars didn't automatically profit the most from their own success.