Kriti Mehrotra
Although Lou Pearlman was undeniably behind the success of many artists in the 1990s and early 2000s, it has all been marred by the fact he was a con man who swindled thousands out of millions. This much has actually even been explored in Netflix’s ‘Dirty Pop: The Boy Ban Scam,’ along with allegations that he was gay as well as a sexual predator — something he always vehemently denied.
Lou Pearlman’s Sexuality Has Never Been Clear
While many believe Lou was a closeted member of the LGBTQ+ community, he himself never claimed to be so and actually even had several seemingly romantic public relationships with women. However, per reports, these connections were simply platonic in reality — the prime example is Tammie Hilton, who has asserted her bond with the then-talent manager never went beyond friendship.
Lou did socially introduce Tammie as his girlfriend, yet she never was – in fact, many believe the only real chemistry he had was with males, especially those he represented in one way or another over the years. According to a 2007 Vanity Fair article, there have even been accusations he only delved into the music industry following a failed career in aviation to get closer to young boys and satisfy his needs.
“Basically, this was an excuse for Lou to hang around with five good-looking boys…,” initial Backstreet Boys member Phoenix Stone stated. “He was along for the ride. What he liked to do was take boys out to dinner.” However, Lou later explicitly denied this claim, along with every allegation of inappropriate behavior or his being a sexual predator as well as a pedophile that came his way – he maintained he was simply doing his job.
“You know, the accusations that came out in that article, none of it was substantiated,” Lou said. “Nobody who I’ve made a success has ever accused me of anything negative like that. The Vanity Fair piece interviewed only people that had a grudge.” It is indeed true that no major star who initially got their rise through him has ever accused him of such conduct, as evidenced in ‘Dirty Pop’ plus ‘The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story.’ Whether it be AJ McLean, Lance Bass, Aaron Carter, or Michael Johnson, they have actually all defended him.
Lou Has Been Accused of Being a Sexual Predator
Although many, including those mentioned above, have always insisted they never once witnessed anything untoward, they have conceded that Lou was often a bit too touchy-feely. “He’d always grab our arms and feel our muscles and go: ‘Hey boys, you workin’ out? Yeahhhh!’,” Backstreet Boys’ Lance Bass once told The Hollywood Reporter before adding he felt sympathy for his manager at the time because “even as a young guy, I assumed that Lou probably was gay. It didn’t really bother me. I knew then that I was gay, so I kind of related to him in a way.”
But alas, quite a few others have come forward with entirely different opinions as well as experiences, including Backstreet Boys’ member AJ McLean’s mother, Denise McLean. “As a mother, you kind of put two and two together,” she told Vanity Fair in 2007. “Yet there was always that fine line where you sat back and went, ‘O.K., is this a guy who always wanted to be a father or an uncle? Is this all innocent? Or is it more?’ I kind of thought that there might have been some strange things going on. But you just didn’t know.”
Denise then indicated that fellow band member Nick Carter could have been Lou’s victim at one point because “My son did say something about the fact that Nick had been uncomfortable staying [at Pearlman’s house]… Then we heard from the Carter camp that there was some kind of inappropriate behavior. It was just odd.” However, she never elaborated on the same, only for there to have apparently been a similar incident with an O Town member during the filming of ‘Making a Band,’ resulting in him leaving mid-season.
A former lead singer of LFO, Rich Cronin, also explicitly claimed Lou tried to seduce him into bed multiple times throughout their professional time together in a 2009 interview with Howard Stern. But again, apart from Lou himself, many others have also backed the latter in asserting he was not inappropriate or a predator – he was just maybe too affectionate. Amongst them was even a British heir named Julian Benscher, who said, “I spent quite a lot of time with Lou from ’90 to ’94 and never did he behave inappropriately in any sexual fashion. Did I a couple of times think that maybe with one of the drivers he had an unusually friendly relationship? Sure. But I spent a lot of time with the boys and Lou, and I can tell you there was no inappropriate behavior. No way.”
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