Especially considering the band's meager beginnings. Kirkpatrick founded the group in 1995 while performing with Fatone at Orlando's Universal Studios; through his agent, Kirkpatrick met Timberlake, who was a cast member with Chasez on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club (also the career launching pad for Spears and Felicity star Keri Russell); Bass was a late addition recommended by Timberlake's vocal coach. ''We'd perform for whoever would listen,'' remembers Timberlake. ''We'd be in the middle of a restaurant saying 'Can we sing for you?'''
Everything changed in '96, when 'N Sync crossed paths with the odd-couple Svengalis Lou Pearlman and Johnny Wright. Pearlman, 44, is a transportation magnate-turned-entertainment investor who developed a taste for teen-pop dollars in the early '90s, when New Kids on the Block rented one of his private jets. (A curious addition to Pearlman's G-rated teen portfolio is his stake in the Chippendales chain of male strip joints.) Wright, 36, began his management apprenticeship in the mid-'80s, driving a van for New Kids founder Maurice Starr. Wright and Pearlman forged their informal — and, in recent months, strained — business partnership in 1992, when the moneyman hired the New Kids vet to help make breakout stars of the Backstreet Boys. Though their relationship has since become as entangled and loopy as the roller-coaster rails of Space Mountain, Pearlman and Wright both envisioned 'N Sync as another boy-band cash cow.
''For six months, it was a cat-and-mouse game,'' Wright says of winning 'N Sync's hand. Finally, ''Lou got on the phone with Justin's parents. Within a week the group was signed.'' The boys were dispatched to the Stockholm studios of songwriter-producers Max Martin and the late Denniz PoP, who between them are responsible for virtually every major hit by BSB, 'N Sync, and Spears. (PoP died six months ago from cancer, at 35.)
When recording was finished, 'N Sync honed its live act in the pop-friendly European market. It took Pearlman and Wright five years to make the Backstreet Boys a hit; their new kids — schooled in BSB's early mistakes — broke through in nearly half the time. ''I saw them for the first time in Budapest,'' recalls RCA international A&R director Vince Degiorgio, who signed the group. ''It was me, 11,000 girls, and the band. I thought, I get this so much.''
Ironically, 'N Sync's Stateside break was a case of settling for Backstreet's leftovers. Two weeks before BSB were set to tape a July '98 concert special for Disney, they backed out. Team Rodent turned to 'N Sync. ''Even after we filmed it, we just thought it was a little concert,'' says Kirkpatrick. ''I was like, 'Well, that was cool. Now we gotta go work on our careers.'''
Turns out the special took care of that. By late August, the group's eponymous debut CD, which had been a mere charttopper wannabe since its March '98 release, shot into the top 10, where it's remained ever since. ''We were starting to be recognized everywhere,'' says Bass. ''The fan letters were pouring in.'' As were the lawsuits. Convinced teen town wasn't big enough for two boy groups, and wondering why their wallets weren't fatter, BSB sued Pearlman (the case has since been settled) and fired Wright. Suddenly, O-Town was crawling with litigators.
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