Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of death and suicide. Readers are advised to exercise caution.
Who Is Frankie Vazquez Jr.? Lou Pearlman Connections Explained After Dirty Pop Netflix Release
The death of Frankie Vazquez Jr., the friend and employee of late talent manager Lou Pearlman, is among the many subjects covered in the Netflix documentary Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam. The three-part limited series premiered on the streaming service on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. It explores the disgraced manager’s financial misdeeds and features exclusive interviews with several artists he managed at the time, including Backstreet Boys frontmen AJ McLean and Howie Dorough, *NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick and O-Town’s Erik-Michael Estrada.
The late Lou Pearlman was the mastermind behind several popular boy bands and girl groups in the '90s and early 2000s. He managed the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and O-Town, and had a significant influence on the bands until his crimes came to light. Pearlman, who was eventually exposed as a fraudster, had defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Artists filed lawsuits against him and his crimes caught up with him, landing him in prison in 2008.
Netflix's Dirty Pop explores such an angle surrounding the death of Lou Pearlman's friend Frankie Vazquez Jr. Frankie reportedly committed suicide in 2006, and Pearlman's friends hold him responsible for their colleague's death.
