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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
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What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
Hi friends! I hope you're having a wonderful day today. If you're not, I'm sorry about it. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to the Library of Dark History.
If you're new here, hi, this is a safe space for all the curious cats out there who think, "Hey, is history really as boring as it seemed in school?" Oh nay nay. This is where we can learn together about all the dark, mysterious, dramatic stories our teachers never told us about. Intro! I don't know about you guys, but I never got the whole like boy band thing. My friend Martha though, yeah, she was like super into the boy band thing.
She was one of those people who like stood outside the Total Request Live or TRL studio screaming her head off with a psycho with a sign like, marry me, Britney, you know. I never understood why people did that. It just seemed...
Random. Look, now that everyone left and us real people are here, I'm gonna tell you a little secret. Okay, I had a secret love affair with TRL, bitch. Not only did I think Carson Daly was super cute, hot, amazing, oh my God, I wanted to be on TRL so bad, but I had a JC Chavez poster on my bedroom wall, NSYNC before Backstreet Boys. No, I was not here for Backstreet Boys. NSYNC was where it's at, okay? I mean, he was my everything. 98 Degrees.
Do you remember 99 Degrees? Oh my God, what was that one guy's name? Ashley Angel. Do you remember Ashley Angel? My God, Ashley Angel. Shout out to you, Ashley Angel. Okay, so boy bands, love 'em. And I never really thought about what the actual definition of boy band is. I mean, it seems sort of obvious, right? Doesn't it? Boys that are in a band. But then I dug a little deeper and I found out this guy, Jason King from NPR had a good definition.
He sums it up like this. First, it's a bunch of guys. Great. They're in their teens and can be as old as like maybe their early 20s. Their music is usually pop or like some sort of...
popalicious, you know? And they don't usually play their own instruments, but they all play a certain role. The hot guy, the bad boy, the sweet one, the dad bod, Chris Kirkpatrick was there, you know? And in other words, their image, the dancing, and like the way that they look mattered as much as, if not more than, the actual music.
I mean they could be lip-syncing for all we cared, shit. So when I think of boy bands my head immediately goes to NSYNC or Backstreet Boys but it didn't start there, nay nay. We'll get to them. Okay so I'm gonna open up my dark history book to the boy band chapter.
I found it great. So it's probably no surprise that the existence of boy bands predates the actual term. I mean all those cute little capella singers and their funny little like, well not funny but like cute little matching sweaters. Why aren't they, they're not considered a boy band for some odd reason.
They sang without any instruments or anything like that. And they were all about their image. So even if they weren't called boy bands, I mean, that's technically what they were. It was called bubblegum pop back in the day and it gave rise to things like barbershop quartets. This is where the idea of boy bands as we know, as we know them, started.
These were kind of like a social club that happened to sing for people and it was a group of young guys who would perform a bunch of cover songs that were super catchy. Well along the way people realized that these groups had serious broad appeal and could be monetized. One of these people was a man named George Osmond. Oh I see where we're going. And he turned his entire family into a money making machine bitch.
Look, if I'm going to have a family, if I'm popping out kids, you're going to all be making me money from a young age. God damn it.
So strap those boots on because we're getting to fucking work. That's what this family did. So the year is 1960. Meet the Osmonds from the state of Utah. Dad, George, Mom, Olive, and their four sons, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay. George was a military man, Olive was a housewife, and the Osmonds were a real picture of the American dream.
Right? Sounds like it. Well, because George was a military man, he also treated his children like soldiers. And what do I mean by that? Well, he made them all sleep in one bedroom together and would assign them endless chores to teach them discipline.
Now at the end of the day, the entire family would sit together around the dinner table and George would make the family sing. You'd think this might be something the kids push back on, but their dad, again, military guy, and they came from a very religious Mormon family. So pushing back, no, not gonna happen, nay nay.
So he starts training the boys to be a quartet of singers. After a few months of practice, word started to spread about the Osmond Boys, and they got a big break in the form of a show at Disneyland, which had an audience of just...
But that's not because the show was a bust or anything. It's because the one man watching the show was looking for some new talent. That man, well, his name was Walt Disney. Yeah, the actual Walt Disney. Now I can't stress this enough.
Getting Walt's seal of approval was huge. If you think Disney is big today, I mean, this guy owned the family entertainment industry during the 50s and 60s. I mean, he dominated it. There was no competition, goddammit. And honestly, Disney still kind of does, right? Walt was so impressed by the Osmond kids, he had them sing at their first television appearance on a show called Disneyland After Dark.
which was like a variety performer showcase. So from here, the Osmonds rise to fame, I mean bitch it skyrocketed. They were landing yet another gig on television after this. Specifically, the Andy Williams show, which was hugely popular at the time, and the Osmonds were such a hit, they ultimately signed a five-year contract with Andy and moved to Los Angeles. The home of palm trees and legal child labor. As long as it's entertaining of course.
So the Osmonds were one of the first boy bands around and one of the biggest success stories early on. But while the Osmonds were dancing their way up the charts, another family was practicing their routine in their living room in Gary, Indiana. And this family would make the Osmonds look like O-Town. Meet the Jacksons.
The year, 1963. Catherine and Joe Jackson live in a two bedroom, one bathroom house with, let me look, eight kids. Yeah, that's a lot. My God.
And speaking of God, the Jacksons were Jehovah's Witnesses. And if you didn't know, Jehovah's Witnesses are sort of a Christian denomination that have something called separationist beliefs, which means they don't like mingling with people of their, of other faiths, I should say. And since Joe was a devout Jehovah's Witness, he kept his kids separate from a lot of the world. One day, while dad was away at work, one of the kids, Tito, decided to play a couple chords on dad's guitar.
I guess Tito was being a serious naughty boy because everyone in the family knew you do not touch dad's stuff. But you know, kids do what kids do and he touched it and he broke it. Not the whole thing though, I mean it was just a string, but either way, dad comes home from work and everyone thinks he's about to go full blown like psychopath, killer, out for blood.
But to their surprise, he doesn't. He just sits Tito down along with his brother and says like, "Show me what you got." They do. And Joe is like, "Holy shit, we got something here." But he doesn't just support their musical aspirations. He names himself their manager and immediately puts them to work. And this was the creation of the band, the Jackson 5.
It wasn't an accident that Joe had a guitar in the house. I mean he had been a musician himself and much like George Osmond, Joe worked his kids to the bones. I'm talking hours of rehearsal every day in their tiny home. And in case you forgot, Joe kept his kids separated from the rest of the world so on top of being overworked, they lived to work. Joe worked his sons to the point of exhaustion and then so.
because anyone who didn't work enough, according to Joe's standards, was met with a few swings of his belt. I mean, he was known to beat the shit out of his kids. Just super fucked up shit, you know? Finally, in 1967, the Jackson 5 performed at the Apollo in Harlem, which is a theater rich in history when it comes to black performers. So it's a huge accomplishment, but it's nothing like the size of the audience the Osmond had access to with Disney and the Andy Williams show.
And their first performance wasn't even a paid gig, it was a talent show. But the Jackson 5 eventually caught the attention of a now iconic record label called Motown Records and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was even bigger than The Andy Williams Show.
So a rivalry between the Osmonds and the Jacksons emerged. Now funny, Donny and Michael, the two lead singers of the respective bands, were buddies, but the press and others acted as though they were in competition with one another. Now it's important to note that while the Osmonds quickly worked their way into the hearts and minds of America, it was a bit more of a struggle for the Jackson 5.
Remember, this is all happening in the United States in the 1960s. I mention this because it reflects the fact that the United States liked its pop stars to be
majority white. We've already touched on this in both the jazz and the rock and roll episodes so I'm not going to like dive too deep into that. I highly suggest you go listen to those episodes if you haven't but it's worth pointing out the difference in perception and the reception of the bands. Either way with the backing of Motown the Jackson 5 their career exploded.
Just releasing hit after hit after hit, I mean people will be dancing to their music 1000 years from now. So full on Jackson mania had taken hold of not just the United States, but I mean I'm talking the globe, okay? But the smiley, happy family band everyone had come to love wasn't so happy behind closed doors. The Jackson 5 only received a royalty rate under 3%.
So if you can't math like me, don't worry. If the band earns $100, then they only get $3. But then it has to be split five ways because there's five people in the band. So that's 60 cents each. Now, I don't know what you're thinking at home, but to me, that feels supremely unfair.
It's a bit of foreshadowing for the decades to come. Well, the Jackson 5 began to unravel. First with the departure of Jermaine Jackson, and then when Michael himself decided to go solo.
So the Jackson 5's rising star came crashing down much more quickly than the Osmonds, even though they'd go on to be remembered as a powerhouse in musical history and the Osmonds would kind of fade into obscurity. But the idea of the boy band did not. In fact, it went global. And unfortunately, it gets even darker, you know? But first, we're going to take an ad break.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory. Bienvenidos a Puerto Rico!
Okay, I gotta look over here to make- look, there's someone watching me right now. If you know what that means, help me out. There was the home of a man named Edgardo Diaz. Now, Edgardo was born in 1947 and after he graduated school, he moved to Spain where he got a job managing a musical group made up of three boys and one girl known as La Pandilla.
La Pandilla was inspired by the success of groups like the Osmonds and the Jacksons. And while Edgardo was managing the band, he noticed two things. One, their fan base was massive and mostly female. Two, the most popular members of the band were the boys.
But as the boys got older, the audiences got smaller. Plus, as the boys went through puberty, their voices changed, requiring the band to alter how the songs were being sung. This gave Edguardo the idea to start his own group that was only boys between the ages of 12 and 16. That sounds so creepy. And once they turned 16, Edguardo would replace them.
With dollar signs in his eyes, Edgardo got to work in 1977 putting together a group he called Menudo. Oh my god, I've learned two things today. Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania, Menudo is Puerto Rican slang for pocket change, and Spanish for small. So Edgardo named the group Menudo to highlight how different all of its small singers were going to be.
Other than being young, the big requirement Edgardo had for the members of Menudo is being clean cut boys from good families who weren't going to cause trouble or become addicted to drugs. He's not asking for much, I guess. Now you may wonder why parents allow their kids to just join a band and travel the world with this man, Edgardo. Well, he frequently targeted boys whose families needed the money.
And once Menudo was a household name, the question wasn't like, why would you let your kid hit the road with Edgardo and Menudo, but why wouldn't you, you know? One historian refers to them as the band that never ages. Well, that's not because of some Peter Pan bullshit. It's because Edgardo just decided to replace people when he felt like it. Like they were machines in his own creepy little factory. I don't know about you, but it feels really, ew.
- Right? Like, gross. You're spending a lot of time alone with boys, specifically between the ages of 12 and 16. Like, oh, okay.
That makes sense. Immediately, Menudo was a huge success in Puerto Rico and other parts of the Spanish-speaking world. Actually, huge success is putting it lightly. You know how the Jacksons had Jackson mania? People went so freaking crazy for Menudo. I mean, fans would wait for over 24 hours outside of venues or like 24 hours
hotel rooms to see the members of Minuto. Some of them would find out which rooms the boys were staying in and, get this, would wait under their beds to see them. I think that's illegal. And there are not one, not two, but three stories of fans crawling through the ventilation ducts of hotel rooms just to get to Minuto.
Get a grip on your kids. And then once Menudo made it to the United States, American music fans got struck with this amazing band as well. With their first US release in 1983 selling 750,000 records in under a year. Now the Washington Post said Menudo was the first Spanish-speaking pop music group to break the language barrier in the United States.
The following year, in 1984, they had sold 8 million records worldwide. Bravo! We love to see it. This was also the year that the most famous person to ever join Menudo appeared. That's right, the same year Menudo became global superstars, none other than Mr. Ricky Martin joined the band.
I loved Ricky Martin, oh my god. So before he was Livin' La Vida Loca, the poor guy was exposed to La Vida Toxica. Dad jokes. Full of them, I guess. But by 1991, 28 boys at this point had been a part of Menudo. They'd average about two years in the group and then just kind of move on. I don't know about you, but something has to be wrong for a young musician to walk away from being a global phenomenon.
So you know how I said Edgardo was very clear about the like no drug use thing? Well, in 1990 two members of Menudo were fired after being arrested for having weed at an airport. But when the press asked them about it, the members said they got the weed from none other than Edgardo himself.
So he announced he was doing drug tests and the whole story blew wide open. Later in 1991, four members quit at the same time saying Edgardo was verbally abusive and playing games with their money. And on top of all that, there were allegations that Edgardo was sexually assaulting the boys in Menudo. Ugh! Edgardo used the accusations from the members that left to his advantage.
saying the claims of sexual abuse were just a way to strike back at him.
Well, to put it lightly, this wasn't true. For starters, there was an eyewitness report that Edgardo forced a then-teenaged Ricky Martin to dress up in women's clothing during mansion parties. And then another member of the group literally witnessed Edgardo having sex with an underage member of the group. Edgardo, you nasty ass. You nasty ass.
Now to this day, no member of the group has ever sued Edgardo. But that's not an indication of innocence. While Menudo was tearing up the pop charts around the world, boy bands continued to evolve in the United States. And in 1980s Massachusetts, another phenomenon was coming together. This was none other than New Edition. Now remember those barbershop quartets I mentioned earlier? Mm-hmm. Well, New Edition started kind of like that.
Three of the founding members, Bobby, Michael, and Ricky, already had a singing group and then they recruited two other dudes, Riz and Brooke.
Now the five of them became New Edition. Now, urban legend says New Edition got their name when one of the band members' uncle saw them perform and was like, "Wow, you guys are like the New Edition of the Jackson 5!" New Edition differed from their predecessors in that, unlike the Osmonds, the Jacksons, and Menudo, they formed their own band. Good for them.
Good for them. In December of 1981, the guys entered a talent contest. The winner got a recording deal with a producer named Maurice Starr. Ironically, they came in second. But Maurice was so blown away by them, he offered the guys a record deal too.
Their first release hit #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was sitting firmly at #1 on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart. Anyway, with their charting success, they hit the road for their first country-wide tour. Now when they returned, they were handed their check for their earnings. Each of them received a drumroll please. Joan, drumroll. Great. A dollar and eighty-seven cents. Great. That's just…
Great! Awesome! I mean, it was honestly insulting. When they wondered why, they were told that the rest of the money was used to cover other costs. So what did they do? Well, they sued Maurice. And good.
Good for them. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court, but the damage was done. New Edition and Maurice parted ways. The band continued on and so did Maurice. In fact, Maurice went on to create a group that absolutely owned the late 1980s and early 90s. And he did it by doing the same thing he did with New Edition. Now he named this new group New Kids on the Block.
And this was kind of like a big fuck you to new edition. So the guys who became New Kids on the Block originally called themselves Nanook, but Maurice thought the name didn't roll off the tongue. I mean, it doesn't. And he came up with like something a little catchier. Okay? Something that could easily be confused with new edition. But...
People wouldn't be confused for long because all the members of New Kids were white. And this was intentional. Maurice said, quote,
And he was right. By 1988, their second album sold 7 million copies. Not quite Menudo Big, but since they were white, people gave them more credit. Unlike a lot of other bands we talked about, New Kids on the Block didn't really have that many controversies and ended up being one of the most successful pop bands of the late 80s.
And maybe Maurice learned his lesson from his new edition days, you know? So you're probably thinking, "Well, why am I telling you about New Kids on the Block then?" Well, hush your little lips, sugar. It's because one man having a chance meeting with them set in motion one of the darkest scandals in the world of boy bands. Shit. But we're gonna take a little break real quick. ♪ Tell me why ain't nothing but an ad break ♪ ♪ Tell me why ♪
♪ I never wanna hear you say ♪ ♪ Why so mad ♪ - This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
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Your cash back really adds up. Welcome back. So we have George and Joe, Edgardo and Maurice. But there's one boy band manager that puts all of these men to shame.
Enter to the scene the man who called himself the sixth member of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, Lou Pearlman. Lou was born in Flushing, New York, and by most accounts, he wasn't really a popular kid. And this will become a theme, okay? Like Daddy Jackson, Lou had been into music in his high school and college days. His first career
Cousin was Art Garfunkel, as in Simon and Garfunkel. So from an early age, Lou was like really interested in the business side of music because honestly he didn't have a face, body or like voice to be on stage. You know what I'm saying? Not to be shady, but like if you Google him, you're not wrong. Okay? When he was a teenager, he managed a band, but he never really found any success with this. So he turned to another field.
Fraud, you know, like that's where you go sometimes. As the story goes, he earned his first million through a bit of insurance fraud, where he bought a blimp he knew wouldn't fly, crashed it, and collected a quick $3 million. Then Lou moved to Orlando, Florida to set up a shell company called Transcontinental Airlines that chartered flights for people who could afford them.
It was also the home of a massive Ponzi scheme, but
We'll talk about that later. Anyway, this company is important to our story because this is what brought him into contact with none other than New Kids on the Block. New Kids chartered one of Lou's planes. And when he met these dapper young fellas, he was like, what? How can these kids afford one of my planes? And when he found out that they were making like 200 million in record sales and 800 million in touring and merchandising, Lou was like, shit.
I'm in the wrong industry. So Lou put out a casting call with his eye on creating his own version of New Kids. Now this is how Lou met Nick, Brian, AJ, Kevin, and Howie, aka the Backstreet Boys. So all these managers seem to use the same playbook. You meet one guy, sign him, and he recruits the rest of the members for you.
But Lou's story comes with a bit of a twist because he set up a house for these five teenage guys to live in. It was kind of like a content house before a content house was a content house. Yeah, Lou was on it.
So they could, you know, spend all their time rehearsing, right? And these guys were living just the life. No parents, no bra, no panties. It's so funny, Bailey. I'm so funny. Papa Lou, as they came to call him, which is like super creepy, drove them around in limos and a Rolls Royce. He took them out to like fancy restaurants. He's...
Oh my god, he's like a pimp! He took them out of school? He gave them an allowance? My god! I just had an epiphany, but that's literally how they get you into sex trafficking or pimps. Like, that's fucked- ew! Not only did he promise them everything they could dream of, but it seemed like he was delivering on that promise, right?
I mean, Lou was their guy on the inside of the industry they wanted to be so badly. Chris Kirkpatrick said, quote, Now I hear you, Bailey. Chris wasn't in Backstreet Boys.
I know, okay, he was in NSYNC, but surprise, surprise, Lou was also behind NSYNC too. And he started them shortly after starting Backstreet Boys. So let's bring them into the mix really quick. Come on in, boys.
Just kidding. That'd be so cool, right? Lou exploded onto the scene with Backstreet, and seeing how successful it was, he knew it was a matter of time before someone arrived to compete with them. But Papa Lou had, and I'll give him credit for this, a great idea. Why not invent the competition himself so he can reap all the rewards? Smart. So Lou pulled together the guys of NSYNC in a similar way that he brought the Backstreet Boys together.
Then he set up the NSYNC guys in their own little house and they were off and running. But first things first, they needed to rehearse. Very important that they do that. Lou set the guys up in one of his airplane hangars. And now you might think this sounds super cool, working on vocals and choreography surrounded by a bunch of super expensive jets, but it wasn't. The hanger was empty. They were rehearsing in a giant hot warehouse
In Florida, terrible. And when they weren't dancing their faces off, they were expected to be working out with their personal trainers Lou got for them. Ultimately, these kids, kids were pulling 18 hour days and that's just six hours of sleep, assuming they didn't stop to eat, shower, use the potty, I don't know, stare at the wall for a minute, you know? And immediately went to bed after their sessions.
So probably like four hours of sleep, if that. Nick Carter said that the only way he could get through the early days of being in Backstreet Boys was by drinking rivers of vodka until he became sleepy and then following it up with a ton of blow to stay awake. Wow. Party. Those are his words. So these teenage guys had no social life, were becoming addicted to drugs, and lived entirely for their work.
No matter how you slice it, it was manipulation by a con man looking to get filthy rich by exploiting poor teenagers. And Papa Lou was well on his way to doing that because by 1994, Backstreet Boys signed with a huge record label at the time. It was called Jive Records. Now the band cut their teeth touring and dropping albums in Europe before hitting the States. And when they did cross back over the pond in 1997, their arrival was unbelievable.
Fucking massive. They released their self-titled album Backstreet Boys. What songs did this album feature? Just two little hits called Quit Playing Games, With My Heart, and Everybody Backstreet's Back.
By 1999, 28 million copies of the album were sold worldwide. I mean, I had one, did you? Let me know down below. This is before the days of iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube, where single song play counts mattered the most.
People would camp out at Sam Goody and Best Buy just to get their hands on it, bitch. Teens would literally sleep on concrete just to get this jam CD, album, whatever. And TRL fed this frenzy. Backstreet Boys were so famous that when they appeared on TRL one time,
5,000 screaming fans flooded Times Square. It got so crowded that police literally had to shut the square down. And they did it again three days later to another 5,000 screaming fans.
With all this success, things didn't slow down. They went from rehearsing and training 18 hours a day to doing interviews, photo shoots, touring, and then rehearsing 18 hours a day. Could you imagine? Man, like when you're young, you like always want, you kind of like want to be famous or something. But then when you hear this shit, you're like, I wouldn't be able to do that as a kid. As a kid? No. Anyway, so I mean...
Backstreet Boys, obviously they were crushing it, okay? And it was proof Papa Lou could make good on like what he was promising.
Meanwhile, NSYNC is waiting in the wings, itching to get a taste of this success. They're ready for their time in the sun. But remember, Lou didn't look at these bands as complimentary. They were competitors. In fact, Lou had set up NSYNC behind Backstreet Boys' backs. It's a little like scandalous, you know?
One source reports that Lou outright said, "Where there's Coke, there's Pepsi." Part of Lou's manipulation was playing Backstreet Boys and NSYNC against one another. So Lou gets to work stirring up his own competition and his own controversy. Remember how the world was told the Osmonds and the Jacksons were arch enemies?
Well, honestly, that shit sells. And Lou knew it. He was like, if anyone's gonna be successful here, it's gonna be me. The tension between the bands was fed by the fact that Backstreet Boys was taking off like rocket ships and SYNC was kind of circling the drain, which was a little odd because their frontman was none other than Disney star Justin Timberlake.
So they're a little confused, right? Funny enough, their break came when Backstreet Boys, exhausted from the insane schedule Lou had them on, turned down a Disney Channel concert. Oh shit. Well, the NSYNC guys jumped at the opportunity, right? They're ready.
And this was their turning point. The Disney Channel concert aired every day for a month and suddenly NSYNC was just as big as Backstreet Boys. Their debut album jumped from 82 on the Billboard 200 to number two. They even had their own crazy TRL moment where an NSYNC fan threatened to murder host Carson Daly after she got an NSYNC trivia question wrong. Can we roll the clip?
No? Alright. So Lou's plan paid off better than he ever could have hoped for, really. Part of the success was because Lou fed the rumor mill. When he was with the guys from Backstreet Boys, he'd say things like, "Have you guys seen what NSYNC is doing? Have you guys noticed that?"
And then when he was with the NSYNC guys, he trash talk about Backstreet Boys. I mean, it all worked in Lou's favor because no matter how bad the shit talking got, people were talking about both bands. Who cares whether it's a Coke or Pepsi when you can just own the whole damn soda industry, huh? Let's pause for a little ad break, shall we? Go get some soda, I guess.
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Unfortunately, the drama Lou started between the boy bands isn't even close to the worst thing he put the bands through. Back in 1997, Nick Carter was only 17 years old. Up until this point, Nick loved going to the hangar to hang out at Lou's house. But something happened one day at Lou's house that AJ McLean's mom said made Nick scared to go back to see Lou at all. It's not clear what happened, but according to her,
Lou was definitely inappropriate with him and Nick just felt that he didn't want anything to do with that anymore. Nick's mom went a step further saying, "Certain things happened and it almost destroyed our family. I tried to warn everyone. I tried to warn all the mothers." What is it?
Other bands were more explicit about what Lou did to them. By the time Backstreet Boys and NSYNC had blown up, Lou had stakes in about a dozen other boy bands, including a band called Take 5. One of the members said that when he was 13 years old, he woke up to Lou standing at the foot of his bed dressed only in a towel.
Lou did a swan dive onto the bed and then wrestled with the boys while his towel fell off, leaving a naked Lou rolling around with 13-year-old boys. A few days later, Lou showed the boys the Take 5 security camera footage from his home of a girl group he managed. The group was sunbathing naked. A grown man showing teen boys naked teen girls.
Yeah. He did it again a few days after that, when he promised to show the boys Star Wars and instead he put on porn. At the time, one of the members of Take Five said, "We just thought it was funny. We were kids." One of the moms of a couple members of Take Five learned later that Lou took her underage sons to a strip club. According to her, Lou is just a sexual predator.
I think that sounds about right. Perhaps the worst accusations against Lou came from his former assistant, Steve Mooney, who said that Lou had a history of touching him inappropriately and worse. He recalls a talk he had with a singer from one of Lou's lesser known bands where he asked the singer point blank if Lou ever groped him.
And he said, "Yeah, all the time." And when Steve asked what the singer was gonna do about it, the singer said, quote, "Look, if the guy wants to massage me and I'm getting a million dollars for it, you just go along for it. It's the price you gotta pay."
But that's not all Steve knew. If Lou's bedroom doors were closed, Steve said he knew not to disturb him. More than once he saw young male singers trying to sneak out of the room undetected. The way he describes it is, "There was one guy in every band, one sacrifice, who takes it for Lou. That's just the way it was."
Man, that's so sad. Despite all the allegations that exist about Lou Pearlman, he never faced accountability or legal actions for any of it. To this very day, Lou being inappropriate is a hot button issue for his former bands.
A Vanity Fair article about Lou put it best saying, quote, End quote.
One attorney who was part of a lawsuit against Lou said, So the innuendo about Lou's sexual misbehaviors weren't enough to take him down, but something else did. Remember how one of Lou's singers said getting touched was the sacrifice you pay for pulling in millions? Well.
Well, here's the thing: they weren't pulling in millions. According to Lance Bass, the guys in NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were paid only $35 per day at the height of their fame. And that's how much he paid his biggest bands. Imagine what the other guys were making. Now, to make things worse, after three years of working their asses off, each member of NSYNC was handed a check for $10,000. Three years.
Super popular. You remember, we bought the shirts, we had the posters, we had everything. $10,000. That is all they got for three full years of training, rehearsing, doing press, recording, touring. I mean, not sleeping. Not to mention the constant sexual harassment. Poor guys. So the guys weren't rolling in it. And when they finally got around to asking about it, Lou just kind of shrugged it off.
They tried to negotiate with Lou, but he wouldn't budge. Maybe part of the reason Lou didn't negotiate was because he was operating a Ponzi scheme. I mean, he was probably using the money from his boy bands to keep his other fake businesses afloat. Yeah, what was he spending the money on? Because if you saw this guy, I don't know, it's like, what the fuck? Plus, despite the accusations of sexual misconduct, the guys looked up to Lou as a father figure.
The revelations about the money was kind of a double whammy. In addition to dealing with the shock of not having the money they thought they rightfully earned, they were devastated to have confirmation that Papa Lou was honestly just a complete shitbag. And in order to get out of their shitty deals, they needed to sue. Let's pause for an ad break.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
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What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
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With my money. With my money. Thank you so much, you guys. I'm here all day. So when the band sued Lou, they started going through the contracts with actual, like, professionals. And what they found was wild. You see, Papa Lou set it up so that he was the...
He set it up so he was the sixth member of both bands, earning himself one sixth of each band's revenue. He then had the guy sign management and recording agreements with his shell company, Transcontinental, which quote unquote charged the band 43% of whatever they made. And then the contracts also gave Lou and his bullshit business Power of Attorney
which basically means he could enter them into whatever other agreements he wanted. Oh shit, that's terrifying. So yes, great singers and dancers, but holy crap, shitty businessmen. I mean, it makes sense though. They were only teenagers at the time. Nobody knows how to read a contract when you first get introduced to one.
So Lou knew this. I mean, he really took advantage of all of that, especially by making himself a father figure to the guys. Step one, establish that trust. Step two, exploit that trust. That's what Lou was up to. So what happened? Eventually, through the legal channels, both Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were able to break away from Papa Lou. Still, that didn't reverse the shock
Sadness and anger they felt about all the backstabbing. But Lou kept going. He just turned his focus onto other bands he managed. All of my favorite bands. The O-Town, LFO, and Take 5, just to name a few.
He even tried his luck with a hip-hop duo and some girl bands, but one by one they caught onto Lou's shenanigans, all either breaking up or suing him as well. And at this point, it wasn't just musicians who were onto Lou's con job. The FBI was sniffing around too and they were about to drop the hammer. So remember earlier when I called Transcontinental Airlines a shell corporation?
Well, that's because Transcontinental only existed on paper. I guess Papa Lou would use his assets like the Backstreet Boys to attract new investors and use money from them to pay off old investors. This, my friends, is called a Ponzi scheme.
and the federal government no likey ponzi. So by 2006, Lou knew the end was approaching, so he fled the country. The FBI eventually tracked him down all the way in Bali, Indonesia. So when the FBI got there, they went right to work. But first, they decided to grab a quick bite to eat.
But when they walked into the restaurant where they were gonna eat, and this is 100% true, they saw Lou Pearlman eating breakfast across the room. What are the odds of that? You can't make that shit up. So after everyone ate, including the feds, they arrested Lou. Yeah, they ate first. They literally ate first. And then they arrested him.
I mean, okay. They brought Lou back to the United States where he was tried in federal court for three counts of bank fraud along with wire and mail fraud. Papa Lou was already dabbling in money laundering, conspiracy, and lied at a bankruptcy hearing. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal lockup where he was really shown the meaning of being loved.
You see what I did there? I mean that's larger than life. Eventually Papa Lou croaked in 2016 while in prison. Bye bye bye Papa Lou. Bye bye bye bye.
Whatever. The end of Papa Lou didn't bring about the end of boy bands. Instead of learning from its mistakes, the music business just evolved and spit out new boy band scandals. Lou's shady tactics proved to the world that these bands could be replicated, exploited, and turned into freaking major money making machines.
Now to these crooked music executives, these weren't teenagers with dreams. They were products to be marketed in order to maximize profit. And this idea would rear its ugly head again with the rise of K-pop. It just keeps going. It's like a wheel. You get it? Wheel? It's like a wheel. You guys get it?
You'd think that after decades of abuse, physical, mental, or otherwise, that things, I don't know, maybe would have changed for the better? You know? Maybe. I don't know. And to an extent, I mean, maybe it has. But overseas, the South Korean music industry, specifically K-pop, look, you guys, side note, K-pop people, don't come for me. Look, I'm not speaking badly of your groups, okay? No, I'm not. Don't come for me. I love you.
K-pop has found a way to make factory-made boy bands and girl groups to a whole other level. Bands like Big Bang, Girls' Generation, or SHINee?
that lean into the intense choreography and pop influenced dance music that prior boy bands did. And they've managed to find success on an international level to an extent we haven't seen since the days of BSB, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC. Unfortunately, while those bands had just one Lou Pearlman,
K-pop has made Lou Pearlman into a whole industry. Remember in the Golden Age of Hollywood episode when I talked about morality clauses and the contracts actresses had to sign that gave away all of their freedom? Girl, these bands have those too, often abiding by strict image requirements and grueling training.
Some of these bands have been pushed so hard members have been driven to commit suicide. In 2017, John Yun from the band SHINee sadly did just that. I mean he left a suicide note saying success left him feeling broken inside. That's so sad. So when you see what's happening in the world of K-pop you can't help but to see that when the United States exports its pop culture and entertainment overseas
The good is almost always accompanied by the bad. The whole dark story behind boy bands and the trail of damage left behind raises some really interesting issues. Let's start with Lou. At best, we know he was inappropriate with underage boys. At worst, he was a full-on sexual predator who created a scheme to keep a fresh supply of victims on hand at all times.
But what we know for sure is that everything he did was smoke and mirrors. I mean, he was a con man. He manufactured a huge Ponzi scheme. And then he ended up just dying in federal prison. And while that's great, there are still men like Edgardo who never faced justice for any of the crimes he committed. And there's another question that keeps popping up for me. Where are all the parents this whole time?
I don't mean to point fingers or assign blame, but you know, where were the people who were supposed to be advocating for and protecting these extremely talented children while they went after their dreams? I guess it's hard to tell your kid no, especially when there's like a charismatic rich guy who can deliver that dream and honestly deliver that money. Because if I have kids, I'm going to be, go make your mom some money.
Okay, so I kind of get it. But unfortunately, this is what happens when you mix a predator with blindly ambitious people. Sure, yes, they made some incredible, amazing, beautiful music along the way. But was it worth it given everything we just learned?
Well everyone, a big thank you for learning with me today. I hope you learned something new that maybe, um, I don't know, because like, of course we want to like support these talented kids and stuff, right? Because they're talented, they make great music and stuff. We just don't want to see them get abused and taken advantage of. I think that's not a hard ask, but...
Jeez Louise, it seems like we ask too much here on Dark History, don't we? My god. Anyways, remember, don't be afraid to ask questions to get the whole story because you deserve that. Now I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story, so make sure to use the hashtag Dark History so I can follow along. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs and also catch my murder mystery in makeup which drops every Monday.
I hope you have a great day today. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week. Good. Bye, bye, bye. That was the right time to do it. Dark History, if you don't know, is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs, Junia McNeely from 3Arts, Justin Cummins, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA.
Produced by Lexi Kiven. Research provided by Ramona Kivett. Writers Jed Bookow, Joey Scavuzzo, and Kim Yeagid. Edited by Jim Lucci. Shot by Tafadzwa Namarundwe. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I thought you guys were going to clap. Amazon One Medical presents Painful Thoughts.
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