Lance

James Lansten Bass was born on 4th May 1979 in Laurel, Mississippi. Even at the age of four he was plonking away on the family's own piano. His voice was also developing very promisingly.

Soon after Lance was born the Bass family (his parents Jim and Diane and his sister Stacy) moved from Laurel to Clinton, Mississippi. Clinton is a small town and this rural community had a large influence on Lance.

"Everyone knows everyone," he says, "I was born in a really small town in southern Mississippi where you didn't have to keep your doors locked and you didn't have to worry about murders and things like that. As a kid I was very secure. I wasn't scared of anything."

Lance and his sister used to entertain the family by dressing up and performing from a young age and it was no surprise that the eleven-year-old Lance joined the local community choir. After only one year Lance had his first engagement with the Mississippi Show Stoppers. Joining the Attache choir was the next step for this talented kid. This choir toured successfully throughout the nation. Despite his love of music, the young man with blonde hair and green eyes was striving for a more academic career. Lance is also talented in natural sciences and he wanted to become an astronaut. What finally convinced him that show business was his future was seeing his musical idol, Garth Brooks in concert.

"Musically, I respect Garth Brooks a lot, through his performances. I guess he's the main one I look up to. His was the first time I went to a concert and said 'That's what I want to do on stage.'"

Another idol he even got to meet is the comedian Rosie O'Donnell. "It was great. It was a dream come true. As everyone knows, she is like my favorite person in the world. I was really looking forward to doing the show and it was everything I hoped for and more."

It was, therefore, a difficult job to convince Lance, who is more the domestic-type, to move to Orlando. He was trying to finish high school and had been accepted to the University of Nebraska. Lance only knew Justin and JC from TV; Joey and Chris not at all. Justin, Chris, Joey and JC are obviously extremely persuasive, as Lance became the fifth and final member of *NSYNC moving to with his family to Orlando.

The lads have meanwhile become such good friends that they look like five brothers whom you could even discuss your problems with. With his calm, well-balanced and down-to-earth manner Lance has become *NSYNC's stabilizing influence.

Lance recovers from the stressful *NSYNC life playing video and computer games. Lance is also a sport fan. His sports of choice are baseball and swimming. Although Lance is more of the quiet calm type, he is in no way the silent one. Once the ice has been broken he loves talking. He is also an extremely good listener. (Admittedly it is much more refreshing to listen to his sweet bass voice.)

On stage Lance is happiest in the background. This doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy being on stage. His friendly and kind face is proof that he takes great pleasure in watching and enjoying the whole show even from the second row.

It's hard to believe but a fan recently paid $1025 for a piece of French toast that Lance had partly eaten - French toast is his favorite food. What will she do with it? And where will she keep it?

In the year 2000 Lance created his own music label, Free Lance Entertainment (http://www.freelanceent.com/), which hopes to focus on new and developing country and pop acts. The first signing was country singer Meredith Edwards, who opened for *NSYNC at some shows in 2000.

Lance has also been bitten by the acting bug. He guest starred on '7th Heaven', where he kissed Beverley Mitchell. "She's a great kisser," he admits, "But it's an acting kiss. It's weird when there are 50 people staring at you. You know, as you're doing a scene, you're just like, mm-hmm, OK.

And you have to do the little acting kiss. It's a lot harder than people think, with fifty people watching you and cameras everywhere - and I had to lose the southern accent. I was in Mississippi for two weeks before shooting and it was really strong while I was supposed to play an Italian Californian!" Rumors also hint that Lance will act in the romantic comedy 'On The Line' alongside band-mate Joey. Filming is due to begin soon in Toronto.