Various Artists News

(5/2/00, 1 p.m. ET) - 'N Sync and its former manager Louis J. Pearlman have had differences in opinion about many things in the past, and now the new reality-based ABC series Making The Band has 'N Sync member Lance Bass speaking out.

The show, which airs on ABC every Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET, follows the real-life adventures of Ikaiki Kahoano, Jacob Underwood, Trevor Penick, Ashley Angel, Paul Martin, Bryan Chan, Erik Estrada, and Michael Miller as they attempt to make the final cut as the five members of Pearlman's latest boy-band creation, O-Town.

Bass offered LAUNCH his opinion of the show, which has an official website that claims the program details "what it was like being one of the guys auditioning for Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync".

"Lou Pearlman's O-Town… I think it's stupid, really," Bass said. "That's not real. The thing that we hate about it is a lot of older people, especially that watch that show, come up to us saying, 'Oh, that's how you got together. I never knew it was like that.' And that's not how we got together. That's how a lot of groups got together, but that's why we're different."

Bass added, "We weren't put together by anybody. We didn't go through a boot-camp audition -- no training like that whatsoever -- and that's why I think it's really just a bunch of stupidity."

The singer also believes O-Town doesn't have a chance of succeeding, primarily because of how they came together. "I don't think it will ever last because the group's already falling apart right now," he said. "You can't put a group together like that and expect it to last."

'N Sync's No Strings Attached tour with opening acts Sisqo and Pink kicks off May 9 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi.

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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