Nick Lachey claimed in a new docuseries that 98 Degrees had a book on their tour bus to identify the age of consent in every state.
“This is going to sound super shady but when we first went out — I remember in our first tour — someone at the label gave us a book,” Lachey recalled in Investigation Discovery’s Boy Band Confidential, which airs later this month. “It was the age of consent in every state in the country.”
He continued: “We kept that book on the tour bus. Unfortunately, there were people out there looking to tear you down.”
Nick, who sang in 98 Degrees alongside Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre, also got honest about how today’s musicians compare to the performers that came before them.
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“You see [Justin] Bieber cancel a tour. You’ll see Shawn Mendes cancel a tour because [their] mental health needs to come first,” he added. “That was not an option when we were out there.”
Nick recalled pushing through regardless of issues off stage, adding, “You went out there and you did the show. Then you came back after the show and you broke down and you cried and you kicked a hole in the wall. Or you did whatever you had to do. But you didn’t bow out. You work so hard to get there, you can’t let your foot off the gas.”
Investigation Discovery’s upcoming docuseries comes from executive producer Joey Fatone, who joins other members of iconic boy groups including fellow ‘NSync member Lance Bass, AJ McLean of Backstreet Boys, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men, Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town, Brad Fischetti of LFO and more.
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“A new special event that goes deep inside the boy band boom of the late 1990s and early aughts, revealing how the industry transformed young performers into marketable commodities while exposing untold stories of abuse, addiction, and financial manipulation,” the synopsis teased. “Through raw, unfiltered interviews with some of the biggest names in pop, Boy Band Confidential exposes the secret machinery of manufactured superstardom and the devastating human cost of the era’s glossy perfection.”
Fatone weighed in on his decision to be involved in the project, saying, “Being in a boy band was one of the greatest experiences of my life, but it also came with challenges we didn’t always understand at the time. This project gave all of us a chance to reflect, to be honest, and to share what really happened behind the spotlight.”
Boy Band Confidential premieres on Investigation Discovery Monday, April 13, and Tuesday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET before streaming on HBO Max.
