The Real Reason These '00s Bands Broke Up

When reporters asked the five members of the boy band NSYNC why they broke up in 2002, they got five different answers. As the unofficial frontman of the group, Justin Timberlake attempted to avoid the breakup being laid at the feet of his solo ambitions. In 2020, he did an interview with DJ Zane Lowe (via Bustle) where he claimed that everyone wanted to go solo: "At that time, everyone had aspirations of doing other things, and we had talked about it." In 2107, however, he told The Hollywood Reporter that, at the time, he "cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group."

In 2019, JC Chasez, who also pursued a solo career, basically backed JT up, telling The Huffington Post, "At that time, we just felt like we had exhausted every kind of idea for what we were doing and we just felt like 'OK, let's do something different.' So, that's what we did."

The other guys have a different story. Joey Fatone told the same reporter, "It was, OK, after [Justin] does his thing, blah, blah, blah, we'll get back together and move forward and do what we got to do. And then it was like, nope." Way back in 2004, Lance Bass wrote a book where he explained, "We're definitely broken up. It's not a hiatus. Justin made it clear that he wouldn't be interested in discussing another album any time soon." As for Chris Kirkpatrick? "I don't know if I was ready for it to end," he said (via HuffPo).

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