Lance Bass’ "Out of Sync" Hits Too Many Wrong Notes

It’s hard to know how many fans were surprised when former ‘N Sync-er Lance Bass came out in 2006. After all, he’d spent so many years trying to make us think he was the ultimate heterosexual heartthrob that some might have found it hard to believe otherwise. And although blogger Perez Hilton had already outed Bass in 2005, until Bass outed himself, the public couldn’t be sure it was true.

When Bass did finally reveal his sexual orientation, he did it with a bang: On the cover of People magazine. Though Bass was forthcoming in the magazine’s pages, an article isn’t long enough to fully cover anyone’s coming-out journey — least of all a celebrity’s.

So you’d think Bass’ memoir, Out of Sync, would fill in the blanks.

But, surprisingly, Bass doesn’t go into too much detail about being gay or his coming out journey. What he does discuss a great deal are former manager Lou Pearlman, the end of ‘N Sync, and his involvement with the American space program. (Bass was training to be an astronaut at one point.)

According to assertions Bass makes in the book, Pearlman stole money, Justin Timberlake left the band too quickly, and the Russians who partnered with the space program were, like Pearlman, strictly out for the moolah. Bass also admonishes former boyfriends, including fellow celebrity Reichen Lehmkuhl, but only briefly.

It’s impossible to know whether all the things Bass says are true, but that doesn’t matter: Using your memoir mostly to take down other people is tacky regardless of what those people have done.

And Bass doesn’t just limit his criticism to those individuals. He has plenty of arrogant and nasty things to say about others, too. Talking about the band’s record-setting sales of No Strings Attached, he writes, “With the music business being what it is today, there is a pretty good chance our numbers will never be matched.…” Discussing other boy bands of the 90s, he says, “Most of them had no talent at all.…” And Britney Spears, Bass believes, is “a prime example…of what fame can do to a person.” That one may be true, but taking potshots at Spears now goes way beyond kicking someone when she is down.

Marc Eliot, author of several biographies (and the man who helped Bass put this book together) heaps praise on Bass in the introduction, going so far as to compare the singer to Elvis. His basis for doing so? They both sang pop music for teens and were born in the South. That’s like comparing Scott Baio to Barbra Streisand because they were both born in Brooklyn.

The ego-stroking and cattiness might have been bearable if there were some serious self-examination included as well. The most obvious lack of this is when Bass describes seeing the People cover on the Internet for the first time. Bass says he felt humiliated and thought people would laugh at him when it — and he — came out. Yet Bass never looks at what that reaction says about him.

He also never looks too deeply at why he stayed in the closet for so long. Eliot, meanwhile, blames Bass’ secrecy on “the times,” as if Bass came of age in the homophobic 1950s instead of the gay-positive 1990s. Going back to People for a moment, it turns out Bass thought the magazine could write about him without putting the word “gay” on the cover. If that doesn’t scream self-image issues, I don’t know what does.

Bass already wasted one opportunity to reach gay youth by not coming out sooner when he was actually popular with younger people, and in Out of Sync, he wastes another. Though he isn’t very popular with kids today, he might still have made a difference had he addressed young queers in the book’s pages. He might have even cultivated a whole new group of fans.

But instead he’d rather write for the rare girl who still kisses her Bass poster before she goes to sleep: There are pin-up shots and teen magazine-esque details, but no tips on living life as a productive young gay male. And while his author bio mentions his work as a philanthropist, there’s no mention of any work he’s done with gay teens.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Out of Sync is how closeted Bass still seems. There are hardly any details about his relationships with men and no pictures of ex-boyfriends. I guess he feels the need to be a little secretive after all he’s been through, but if that’s the case, he had no business writing this kind of memoir in the first place.

Actually, it can be argued he had little business writing a memoir, period. Bass is only in his 20s, and though he’s had an exciting life, he hasn’t really lived much. It would be far more interesting to read a memoir by him 20 years from now, when he’s experienced a little more.

Indeed, his limited life experience shows often in this book. There are only so many pages he can fill with ‘N Sync tales, his space experience, and stories from his youth. As it stands, we too frequently have to relive his dull early years. “In fall 1995, my junior year, I was elected vice president of our class and was put in charge of the float for the homecoming parade — a very big deal.”

And even with all those sleep-inducing paragraphs, the book only comes to 196 pages — pretty short by memoir standards.