2. However, Lance wasn’t the first fifth member of *NSYNC!

That title belonged to Jason Galasso, who knew Fatone from high school choir and received a call out of the blue from his old friend. Coincidentally, he also knew Chasez because, as Galasso explained on The Digital Get Down podcast in 2019, he “used to kind of hang out with The Mickey Mouse Club” stars.

After performing a rendition of Boyz II Men‘s “End of the Road,” he was invited to join the group. “I remember thinking, ‘Dang, Justin’s young!'” he recalled. “But then I heard him sing, and I thought ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter how old he is, he can sing his butt off.’

At the same time, however, the bass singer was also part of a three-man group called Unreal, “so I was still trying to decide,” Galasso, now in the mortgage loan business, remembered, noting his background in “R&B and hip-hop.”

When Pearlman approached him with “this European-style techno,” he thought, ‘Hmm, okay.'” He traveled with the other members of Unreal to Atlanta to record a demo, which he believed turned out great.

Meanwhile, *NSYNC was beginning to develop a look and was discussing putting together a showcase for Disney’s Pleasure Island.

Before long, both groups were vying for his signature. Galasso mentioned that he took the competing contracts to a lawyer and found that while the deal with the trio was fairly standard, Pearlman had inserted himself into the *NSYNC contract as a sixth member, and that contract was “thick as a phone book.”

Ultimately, Galasso chose to go with the group that wasn’t *NSYNC.