Lance Bass: 'Harry Styles was ready to quit One Direction'
Former 'N Sync star Lance Bass has revealed Harry Styles was ready to quit One Direction long before bandmate Zayn Malik announced his departure last month (Mar15).
Malik walked away to live a "normal life", leaving Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson to continue their world tour without him, and Bass, who is now the host of pop music countdown show Dirty Pop on SiriusXM, claims insiders have told him Styles was making plans to quit when Malik dropped his bombshell.
In an interview on Meredith Vieira's talk show on Thursday
(23Apr15), Bass said, "I host my own talk show every day, and you
get some inside scoops - Harry Styles has been ready to go solo for
many months. He's been recording solo and he was about to leave.
The Zayn thing was just spur of the moment."
However, the Bye Bye Bye hitmaker thinks Malik's swift move was a
good decision.
He explained, "I think it was the best move he could have ever
done, because Harry Styles is a household name. Zayn Malik - didn't
really know his name until he was the first who left the group. So
kudos to him for being smart to leave.
"I think the guys are always going to be friends, they're
brothers... (but) the fact they lasted this long is a surprise to
me. Hopefully the other four can go on and do a little more music.
I see Harry leaving soon and I don't see another One Direction
album happening after that."
Bass is well aware of boy band drama - 'N Sync split in 2002, but
ultimately decided to call it quits after Justin Timberlake's solo
career skyrocketed.
Bass said, "We took a three year hiatus - it was supposed to be six
months. I went to Russia to train to be a cosmonaut, Justin went to
do a solo album and when I got back, the album just got bigger and
bigger and it just never stopped (for him).
"There was a point where he sat us down and said, 'I can't focus on
'N Sync right now because my solo career is just going crazy,' and
you have to respect that. You can't expect someone to do something
they don't want to do."
But the former pop star insists he and his ex-bandmates are still
close: "We're all in a good place. We all talk to each other every
day."