Lance Bass

James Lance Bass is an American entertainer.

Early life
Lance Bass was born in Laurel, Mississippi to his father James Irvin Bass, Jr. and his mother Diane (née Pulliam). He and his sister Stacy were raised in the nearby city of Ellisville.

As a child, Bass was very interested in space. When taking a family trip to Cape Canaveral when he was nine, Lance also got to see a shuttle launch. After that he came to the conclusion that when he grew up, he would became an astronaut. A year later he went to space camp for a week, and was convinced that he was going to have a career involving space. He found space amazing, but didn't have this same interest in performing, saying that he was likely never awed by performing in the same way he was by space "probably because singing just came naturally to [him]."

At the age of ten, his family moved to Clinton, Mississippi. Bass joined the choir in his Baptist church, and his friend eventually convinced him to audition for a local performance. Bass joined the Mississippi Show Stoppers, a state-wide music group sponsored by the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, and the Attaché Show Choir, a national-award-winning competitive show choir group at his local high school. He was also a member of a seven-man vocal group named Seven Card Stud, which competed at state fairs and performed at several social and political events for Senator Trent Lott. During the rest of his high school education, Bass spent most of his time working on his singing, stating that he can barely remember anything about his academics.

In 1995, during his junior year of high school, Justin Timberlake's vocal coach (who had worked with Bass during his time as a Mississippi Show Stopper), recommended Bass as a potential member of the boy band NSYNC. After auditioning in front of the other bandmembers and Lou Pearlman, he was accepted into the group. He soon after left school to go to Orlando, Florida and rehearse full-time. Bass admits that, before his time at NSYNC, he couldn't dance, but eventually got the hang of the difficult choreography. The band eventually moved to Munich, Germany to record their firm album with BNG, and they began extensive touring in Europe. Bass's mother quit her job in order to tour with the group as a chaperone, as her son was still a minor at the time.

After gaining significant notability in Europe, NSYNC was signed to American record label RCA in 1997." The group's first single, "I Want You Back" began receiving major radio play in the United States, and NSYNC soon found themselves becoming an "overnight sensation," a period which Bass describes in his autobiography as "the death of my own innocence." Along with increasing fame and recognition in the United States, the band also experienced a highly publicized legal battle with Pearlman, due to what the group believed were illicit business practices on his part. NSYNC sued Pearlman and his record company, Trans Continental, for defrauding the group of more than fifty percent of their earnings, rather than his original promise of only receiving one-sixth of the profits. The group threatened to leave and sign with Jive Records, which prompted Pearlman to countersue RCA to NSYNC for $150 million, citing breach of contract. The injunction was thrown out of court and, after winning back their earnings, NSYNC signed with Jive. Bass has been estranged from Pearlman ever since.

In 2002, the group announced that they would be taking a "hiatus," during which Timberlake began to record solo material. NSYNC has not recorded new material since.

In 2000, Bass formed a music management company named Free Lance Entertainment.

Bass made his acting debut as Rick Palmer in 7th Heaven, while he was still in the band. Bass has appeared on various TV shows since, and even on Broadway, where he played Corny Collins in Hairspray. He has also done voice acting in several animated television series and video games, including Gravity Falls after being contacted by Alex Hirsch, who asked him to voice some of the Sev'ral Timez bandmembers. Bass agreed and went to the studio to record, where he met both Alex Hirsch and his sister Ariel, a big fan of his who was also voicing a character, which her brother had planned in order to get her to meet her childhood celebrity idol.