4.6 • 18.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Lou Pearlman rises from humble beginnings in Queens, New York to launch a successful blimp and charter plane company called Trans Continental. In the ‘90s, he cements his reputation as a risk-taking entrepreneur when he creates a pop music “boy band,” the Backstreet Boys. But Pearlman’s “fake it till you make it” approach is built on a foundation of deception, setting the stage for his ultimate downfall.
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0:00.0 | Hi, this is Lindsay Graham, host of American Scandal. |
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0:40.1 | It's June 2007 at the Weston Resort in Bali, Indonesia. |
0:45.0 | 24-year-old Michael Johnson pushes through the doors of the hotel business center, |
0:47.1 | looking for his mentor, Lou Pearlman. |
0:50.1 | Pearlman is 30 years older than Johnson, and a world-famous music mogul best known for creating two of the most successful boy bands in history, |
0:56.3 | the Backstreet Boys and InSync. |
0:58.7 | For the last several months, Johnson has been traveling around the world with Perlman, |
1:02.6 | scouting bands and meeting with potential investors for a music and media business they're planning on starting together. |
1:09.1 | And at first, Johnson felt immensely lucky to have this opportunity to work with someone as savvy as Pearlman. |
1:15.6 | When they first met, Johnson was just a teenager with dreams of becoming a famous musician himself. |
1:21.6 | Pearlman managed Johnson's band for three years. |
1:24.6 | But when the band fell apart, Pearlman took Johnson under his wing and offered him to |
1:28.6 | teach him the business side of music. And even though Pearlman is old enough to be his father, |
1:33.4 | Johnson has come to think of him as one of his best friends. But lately, things have felt different. |
1:39.3 | Johnson spots Pearlman hunched over a table and makes his way over to say hello. He pulls up a chair, but Perlman barely acknowledges his presence. |
1:48.3 | It's yet another sign that Perlman isn't telling him something. |
1:51.5 | With every passing week, Prolman has seemed more and more distracted. |
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