HBO Max’s ‘Boy Band Confidential’ Documentary Sets Sail

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery

The Joey Fatone-produced series features interviews with fellow *NSYNC bandmate Lance Bass, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris, and many more.

*NSYNC’s Joey Fatone is the executive producer of “Boy Band Confidential,” a new Investigation Discovery (ID) series that pulls back the curtain to reveal the darker side of the boy band phenomenon of the ‘90s.

Premiering on April 13 and 14, the series features interviews from a slew of former boy band members—including Fatone, his former bandmate Lance Bass, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman, and 98 Degrees’ Nick Lachey, among others.

The series aims to expose “the secret machinery of manufactured superstardom and the devastating human cost of the era’s glossy perfection.” According to ID president Jason Sarlanis, “Boy Band Confidential” provides “an honest, unfiltered look at a cultural phenomenon that shaped an entire generation.”

“With Joey Fatone bringing together a who’s who of artists from the era’s most iconic boy bands, we’re illuminating the pressures, vulnerabilities, and surprising realities of life at the height of pop stardom with a level of access rarely achieved in music documentaries,” Sarlanis added.

“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,” Joey Fatone shared. “This project gave all of us a chance to reflect, to be honest, and to share what really happened behind the spotlight.”

Already, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the series, with 98 Degrees’ lead singer Nick Lachey revealing that the band was given a “handbook” listing the age of consent across the United States—the age at which people can lawfully consent to sex, which varies by state.

“This is going to sound super shady,” Lachey cautioned. “But 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. […] And, like, we kept that book on the tour bus.”

Lachey added that the manual was intended as a precaution for the band members, who were all between the ages of 21 and 24 at the time. Having sex with an individual below the age of consent can, of course, come with criminal sex abuse charges, so it makes sense why the label would have wanted its musicians to remain cautious with so many young fans.

But it also illustrates the intense scrutiny members of boy bands were under, echoes of which can be seen in the likes of K-pop ensembles today. It’s well known these days that K-pop groups can be held to some pretty intense standards, and “Boy Band Confidential” seems prepared to reveal that things weren’t so different 30 years ago.

“You’ll see a Justin Bieber cancel a tour—you’ll see a Shawn Mendes cancel a tour because ‘my mental health needs to come first,’” said Lachey. “That was not an option when we were out there.”

“You went out there and you did the show and 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,” he explained. “But you didn’t bow out.”

“Boy Band Confidential” premieres on Monday, April 13, at 9 PM ET on the cable network Investigation Discovery, and on streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+.