Lance Bass attends the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California on April 1, 2024. Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
Lance Bass shares how Elton John was his gay welcome cart
Speaking to People Magazine on the publication’s 50th anniversary, former NSYNC member Lance Bass recalled in 2006, when — despite his fears, but prodded by a reporter who exposed him — he decided to publicly embrace authenticity…and none other than Elton. John welcomed him to the openly gay “club” with a gift basket.
Bass had long heard that coming out would torpedo his career, but, he noted in the publication, although “there were rumors,” it was “a time when social media was not not really important and where we could actually have more.” of a private life.”
The artist, husband and father added: “No one was taking photos everywhere you went. So it was pretty easy for me to live that kind of private life.”
That changed on a trip to Provincetown when he struck up a conversation with a man while “waiting in line in the restroom at one of the bars,” Bass recalled, “and he said, ‘You You’re Lance, right? I’m like, ‘Yeah.'”
“He says, ‘Wait, are you gay?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah,'” Bass added. “And it was the first time I told a stranger that I was gay.”
This stranger happened to be a journalist – and Bass’s admission quickly became the subject of tabloids.
“I knew I had to say something,” Bass recalled, even though “I was so afraid of what was going to happen in my personal life. I didn’t want my family to be hurt by this.”
He also didn’t want to see his career suffer like Ellen DeGeneres’ after coming out. “I saw how she was treated,” Bass told People Mag. “I’m like, ‘Oh, God, have mercy. This is horrible.'”
Courageously, however, Bass decided to move forward with the truth, and he made it known in an interview with the magazine. After that, needing some distance, he took a vacation and “went to Catalina Island with my boyfriend at the time.”
In fact, his career didn’t fizzle out — even though he missed out on the chance to star in a sitcom with fellow NSYNC co-star Joey Fatone. On the contrary, the pop star, now 44 and a happily married father, is thriving.
But even though “everything in my life changed,” Bass said, and Hollywood’s gatekeepers “said, oh, well, we can’t use you now,” his fans “made it such a thing positive”.
It made all the difference: “Once I could see that reaction,” Bass told People Mag, “it made me feel so good that I wasn’t going to be hated anymore.”
Then there was the gesture that pop icon Elton John made. “The funniest thing I got after I came out was a cute gift basket – I think on my front porch – and it was from Elton John that basically said, ‘Welcome to the club,'” Bass said .
“I was like, ‘Wow, I got a welcome basket from the king of the gay mob,'” Bass continued. “I’m like, ‘I’m in!'”
“I thought it was the most fun and welcoming basket you could ever get.”
Kilian Melloy is an associate arts editor and staff contributor at EDGE Media Network. Her professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Elliot Norton Awards Committee of the Boston Theater Critics Association.
