EGN NEWS DESK
Lou Pearlman is finest recognized for launching boy bands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. But he’s additionally recognized for spearheading one of many longest-running ponzi schemes in U.S. historical past.
Dirty Pop, a brand new documentary collection produced by TIME Studios, charts Pearlman’s rise and fall over three episodes, that includes views from former workers of the music mogul and boy band members he mentored.
The collection, out July 24 on Netflix, additionally explores why Pearlman was so into boy bands. Many individuals interviewed say that his curiosity was not nefarious. Pealrman simply wished desperately to be one of many cool youngsters, without end making an attempt to outrun his previous as an obese baby whose nickname was “Fat Boy” rising up.
“He was a child in an grownup physique,” Michael Johnson, a member of the boyband Natural and one among Pearlman’s protegés, tells TIME.
Who was Lou Pearlman?
Pearlman started his profession within the aviation trade. A cousin of Art Garfunkel, he all the time wished to be within the music trade and labored his method to managing dozens of boy bands. He was in a position to preserve his affect via a persuasive character. Johnson calls him “the best showman.”
“He may make one thing appear like it was profitable when it was not, make you imagine that in the event you didn’t get in on his subsequent challenge, you will appear like the most important fool on the planet,” he says.
To quote the Backstreet Boys’ hit track “Larger than Life,” that’s what Pearlman was. He lived lavishly in Orlando, Florida, and made positive the band members he managed flew on personal jets whereas on tour. Johnson says he’d usually dine with world leaders when he traveled with Pearlman. He explains that this type of remedy was not the norm.
“Usually a label will not be prepared to spend 5 to 10 million {dollars} on a band that has by no means performed a present earlier than, however he did that—as a result of it was not his personal cash,” he says. “It was principally stolen cash. So he was in a position to put sources behind these bands that no different label would be capable to do.”
Perhaps the obvious signal of Pearlman’s affect was his capability to get Johnson’s boy band Natural on a aircraft proper after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist assaults, when most planes have been imagined to be grounded. The group was doing a photograph shoot in New York. Pearlman made a satellite tv for pc name. On Sep. 12, they have been on a non-public aircraft flying again to their Orlando headquarters.
Tracing the autumn of Lou Pearlman
Pearlman’s eye for expertise was actual—because the success of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys exhibits—however his enterprise was a fraud. The documentary exhibits that he was utilizing the boy bands to attraction buyers and lure them into his ponzi scheme.
After Johnson’s band Natural broke up in 2004, he got interested within the enterprise facet of the leisure trade, and labored with Pearlman on what he thought have been TV tasks. They traveled southeast Asia to pitch buyers. The tasks didn’t go wherever, however Pearlman didn’t wish to go residence.
“It turned out that our world travels have been truly him being on the run from the FBI,” says Johnson.
During a short keep in Bali within the spring of 2007, Johnson says Pearlman opened as much as him about how he was forging paperwork. Johnson flew residence, and in June 2007, Pearlman was arrested.
Of the roughly $500 million that Lou Pearlman stole, solely about $10 million has been recovered. In 2008, he was convicted of cash laundering and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He died behind bars in 2016 after a coronary heart assault.
Johnson continued to carry out with varied teams for years after Pearlman’s arrest. Nowadays, he works extra off-stage as a composer and movie producer. He describes the influence of Pearlman’s deception on him and fellow boy band members: “Psychologically, we’re nonetheless coping with these belief points.”
Social media and platforms that enable artists to achieve shoppers have given performers extra management over their companies. In phrases of recommendation to up-and-coming performing artists who wish to be sure that they don’t find yourself working with somebody like Pearlman, Johnson says to “have an incredible lawyer.”
