Nick Lachey knows how it sounds. He said so himself. “This is going to sound super shady,” the 98 Degrees singer recalled in the upcoming Investigation Discovery docuseries Boy Band Confidential, “but when we first went out, I remember our first tour, someone at the label gave us a book, and it was the age of consent in every state in the country. We kept that book on the tour bus. Unfortunately, there were people out there looking to tear you down.”
The revelation, first reported by Page Six and confirmed by multiple outlets, is one of the more startling details to emerge from a series that positions itself as an unflinching look at the machinery behind the late-1990s boy band era. Lachey’s framing presents the guide as a protective measure for the band members, who were all between 21 and 24 years old during their first tour in 1999. The implicit context is that young male pop stars in that era were considered targets for accusations that could derail careers, and that labels took active steps to legally protect their assets.
Whether that framing fully accounts for why such a guide would exist is a question the docuseries appears designed to prompt rather than answer.
Boy Band Confidential, executive produced by *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, premieres on Investigation Discovery on Monday (April 13) and Tuesday (April 14) at 9 p.m. ET before streaming on Max. Its synopsis describes the series as going “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.” Fatone said of the project: “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.”
Lachey also touched on the financial realities of that era. He described signing with Motown for a “very nominal advance” and taking a deliberately austere approach to spending because every expense was recoupable against royalties. At 4 a.m. after recording sessions in New York, the four members of 98 Degrees took the A train back to Brooklyn in the middle of winter rather than expense a car service.
The mental health dimension of the story landed with particular weight given what has followed in the decades since. Lachey drew a direct contrast between how the industry operated then and how artists navigate it now. “You’ll see Justin Bieber cancel a tour. You’ll see Shawn Mendes cancel a tour because their mental health needs to come first,” he said. “That was not an option when we were out there. 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. But you didn’t bow out.”
The series joins a growing body of retrospective work examining how the pop industry of the late 1990s treated the young performers at its center, a conversation that has accelerated significantly in the years since more high-profile cases involving that era have come to light. The cast of Boy Band Confidential includes Fatone, Lachey, O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel, *NSYNC’s Lance Bass, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman, and LFO’s Brad Fischetti. 98 Degrees released their first non-Christmas album in over a decade, Full Circle, last May.
