Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Rolling Stone reports:
Lou Pearlman, the Svengali-like manager behind Nineties boy bands like Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, O-Town and more, died Friday night behind bars while serving a 25-year prison sentence stemming from a $300 million Ponzi scheme. He was 62. The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator confirms that Louis Pearlman died in custody on August 19th, with sources also telling Billboard that Pearlman had died. No cause of death was provided. “Mixed emotions right now, but RIP Lou Pearlman,” ‘N Sync’s Chris Kirkpatrick tweeted following news of Pearlman’s death. Lance Bass added, “Word is that #LouPearlman has passed away. He might not have been a stand-up businessman, but I wouldn’t be doing what I love today [without] his influence. RIP Lou.”
More from Billboard Magazine:
His groups dominated the charts during the 1990s: Backstreet Boys landed six Top 10 singles in the Hot 100 and a whopping nine albums in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, with both Millennium and Black & White hitting No. 1 (albeit after the group split from Pearlman). ‘NSYNC had six Top 10 singles on the Hot 100 and landed four albums in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, although the two of them that reached No. 1 — No Strings Attached and Celebrity — were both released after the split. His next most popular act, O-Town, had a single and an album in the Top 10.
But both before and after his fall, rumors were rampant about Pearlman’s relationships with some of the male groups on his roster. “We would hear things, for sure,” ‘NSYNC’s Lance Bass told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “He would always have young boy limo drivers for Trans Continental Records. Those limo drivers would always be put into different boy bands. Then I’d hear rumors that he would molest the boys before they would even get into the groups. I don’t know how much of that is true, but to me, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Pearlman denied any inappropriate relations.