--- title: Joey Fatone and NSYNC Troll Backstreet Boys in Rivalry description: Former NSYNC member Fatone fueled the fires of the boy band rivalry with a tweet to AJ McLean about a "Boy Band Tip-Off." canonical: https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-02T15:20:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:08.866Z og:title: Joey Fatone Is Not Letting the NSYNC-Backstreet Rivalry Die og:description: The former NSYNC member just poked fun at Backstreet's A.J. McLean on Twitter og:url: https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joey Fatone Is Not Letting the NSYNC-Backstreet Rivalry Die twitter:description: The former NSYNC member just poked fun at Backstreet's A.J. McLean on Twitter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # \*NSYNC's Joey Fatone Just Trolled the Backstreet Boys in the Rivalry That Never Dies  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 2, 2017 3:20 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 2, 2017 3:20 PM UTC What’s dead may never die, especially in the worlds of [boy band rivalries](http://time.com/3690244/see-90s-boy-band-members-then-and-now/). At least, that seems to be the latest from former NSYNC crooner [Joey Fatone](http://time.com/4385713/joey-fatone-hot-dog-stand-florida-fat-ones/), who called out Backstreet Boy [AJ McLean](http://time.com/4506405/backstreet-boys-vegas-show/) over Twitter in a friendly (or was it?) reminder of the changing tides of popularity between the two major 90s groups. While in a checkout line, Fatone snapped an image of a set of dueling tip jars — one crowned with an NSYNC photo of Fatone, [Justin Timberlake](http://time.com/4787384/justin-timberlake-seth-rogen-response-tweet/), Lance Bass, and the rest, the other with that of the Backstreet Boys. In the “Boy Band Tip-Off,” it’s clear to see that the NSYNC jar is currently winning against that of McLean and his gang at this establishment. So of course Fatone had to stoke the fires of rivalry with a little social media shout-out about this exciting fact. > [](https://twitter.com/realjoeyfatone/status/870462165941092353) Even so, some of Fatone’s fans weren’t sure that they agreed with the tip jar’s results. > [](https://twitter.com/HeatherBloke/status/870462446657470467) > [](https://twitter.com/DonnaVitale4/status/870465153959174150) > [](https://twitter.com/Butterfly%5F249/status/870473740890583040) Then again, others wanted to add a whole other element to the mix. Some feuds are forever. > [](https://twitter.com/sf49ergirl85/status/870464125868032000) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/"},"headline":"*NSYNC's Joey Fatone Just Trolled the Backstreet Boys in the Rivalry That Never Dies","datePublished":"2017-06-02T15:20:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:08.866Z","description":"Former NSYNC member Fatone fueled the fires of the boy band rivalry with a tweet to AJ McLean about a \"Boy Band Tip-Off.\"","url":"https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4803082/joey-fatone-nsync-backstreet-mclean/","name":"*NSYNC's Joey Fatone Just Trolled the Backstreet Boys in the Rivalry That Never Dies"}}]}] ```