Lance Bass on Pride Week and his "slow" wedding plans
Lance Bass is soaking in Gay Pride Week in New York.
On Monday, the 35-year-old singer attended the Trailblazer Awards, where he presented NBA star Jason Collins with an honor.
"I look up to him so much," Bass said about the NBA star, who became the first publicly gay athlete to play in a major pro-sports league. "I think he's done so great with his coming out and how he's educated so many people in the sports world. It's just incredible."
Next up for Bass during Pride Week? The Barefoot Wine Pride Kick-off Celebration on Wednesday night at Arena in Manhattan.
"I love Pride Week in New York. It's special to me and I love this event with Barefoot Wine," Bass told CBS News. "This one's going to be so much fun. For one, Bianca Del Rio ["RuPaul's Drag Race" season six winner] is going to be there, and I'm obsessed with her. You know there's going to be a lot of laughter and a lot of color."
In between appearances and music, film and television work, Bass is planning a wedding -- albeit very slowly. He and and Michael Turchin got engaged last year and gearing up for a wedding next February -- all of which will be televised. Read on to hear why Bass decided to have cameras along for the ride.
On strides within the LGBT community: "It's so exciting to be alive during this period. As stressful and as hard as it's been, to be able to see a change in the world just in the last two years - it paved the way quicker than we ever thought it would go. It's just been amazing to see people's lives change and just the education that's going around. I attribute that to how easy it is to get information, social media and how we're connected. And that's only happened in the last five or six years. And everyone being able to talk to others around the world so quickly. People are getting a better view of the world and the differences that everyone has and people are celebrating it instead of hating it right now."
On why he's launching his own dating app, Sparxx: "I'm lucky enough to be marrying the man of my dreams, Michael, next year. And so many people fought for us to be married. I think within the LGBT community there's a lot of stereotypes - about not being serious or one-night stands. And that's not what most of us are all about. We love loving relationships. I've noticed in the LGBT community that there are not that many dating websites or apps that focus on finding true love. It's kind of more of a one-night stand type situation. I wanted to create something in line with Tinder. I love Tinder -- a lot of my straight friends are on that app and having very successful relationships and dates. It's totally legit. So I wanted to create something that used a Facebook platform like that just for the LGBT community."
On his wedding plans: "It's going very slowly. We're not walking down the aisle until early next year so we have a little time. With two guys planning the wedding, it's the slowest process. E! is going to follow the process. We're excited that world is going to get to see a gay wedding being planned...It's so exciting to have middle America and the South to be able to see something like that on television. As a little kid growing up in Mississippi, I had no one to look up to and that was definitely not on television then. So I figured it would be great for young LGBT to be able to turn on the TV and see something like that go down and be able to say, 'Oh my gosh, I can dream to have a wedding like that.'"
On upcoming E! series: "I think people will get to know who we really are. It's hard to get to know someone that's out there in the magazines and everything just through headlines. I'm sure there are misconceptions about me, my personality and my fiance. So this will be fun to get to know really how silly we are, how normal and boring we are just like any other married couple out there."
On "Walking on Air," his first new music in 12 years: "It's getting remixed...You'll start getting to hear that in the clubs...I'm in the studio writing for the second single right now. It's something I've missed completely. Now that I'm back in music I realize how much I've missed it."
Why he's returning to music now: "It's really perfect timing for me. I've been working on film and television projects for the last 10 years and everything started hitting this year. And I had some free time. I started listening to some songs and it took me a few months to find the right song and the song 'Walking on Air' landed on my lap. I absolutely fell in love with it and had to record it. So within 24 hours I was in the studio recording that song."
On *NSYNC reunion plans: "Nothing right now. It's nothing we really plan or anything like that. If something comes up, then we'd definitely get together to perform. Just like last year with the MTV Awards. It was just the perfect thing to honor Justin and the award he was getting. So it just made complete sense to do a little medley."
On new TV pilot: "Right now my big focus is a show I'm writing for E! -- it's a scripted show. A music show. Kind of like a music version of 'Entourage.' It's a real dark look at the music industry today and all based on true stories that I've witnessed throughout my career. We've been writing that and the pilot is already written. It's just about finalizing that right now and it just shipping to the network this week. So we're excited to start working on that."
