No "Tearin' Up My Heart" or "It's Gonna Be Me"?! 'N Sync fans worldwide had a boy-band-gasm when, as anticipated, the quintet reunited for their first televised performance together in a decade to perform a condensed version of "Bye, Bye, Bye" at the MTV Video Awards at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sunday, Aug. 25. Still, some were crestfallen that the reunion, squeezed into Justin Timberlake's 15-minute solo set — all part of his Video Vanguard honor — was so brief.
In fact, Timberlake's brothers in song Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez were initially "upset" that Timberlake nixed earlier plans to include more 'N Sync songs for the VMA show, a source tells Us Weekly.
"They were pushing for more," the source says. "While he was thrilled they could come for him, he didn't want the reunion to be the whole thing. They originally were told that it was going to be more of their old hits, not just Bye Bye Bye — but then Justin reworked it."
"The guys wished it could have been more songs," continues the insider. "He told them to trust him, he was going to make it great." (During the show-stopping segment, Timberlake sang snippets of his solo hits "Take Back the Night," "Sexy Back," "My Love," "Cry Me a River," "Señorita," "What Goes Around Comes Around" and "Rock Your Body" before his bandmates joined him for a few bars of "Gone" and "Girlfriend" before rocking out to "Bye, Bye, Bye." After about two minutes, Fatone, Bass, Kirkpatrick and Chasez departed the stage, and Timberlake sang one final song.
Regardless of that disappointment, there's absolutely no bad blood. "They loved being all back together," the source explains. "It felt like the old days!"
Timberlake then acknowledged his pals while accepting his milestone award. "Half of the Moonmen I ever won, I won with ['N Sync]," the singer said. "I'm going to share this with them."
Once the show was over, all five men stuck together until the wee hours, hitting Jay-Z's VMAs afterparty held at PH-D with the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Drake, Rita Ora and others.