Sunday's *NSYNC reunion at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) was Justin Timberlake's idea, according to JC Chasez.

According to Chasez, Timberlake called his former band mate and said, ""Hey man, listen. I'm getting this award, and they have given me a pile of time to perform. And we started our careers at MTV, and I think we should get the band back together.'"

Chasez, who performed alongside Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick during Timberlake's 15-minute performance set, spoke with Ryan Seacrest about the group's decision to reunite.

"It really was about him and all that he's accomplished, but he wanted to acknowledge that part of his career, so we all decided to do it," Chasez said.

The performance, in which *NSYNC sang a shortened version of their 2000 pop hit, "Bye Bye Bye," was supposed to be kept a secret.

"Listen, man, let's really make it a treat, and let's not tell anybody," Timberlake said, according to Chasez.

The news, however, was a strong, well-known rumor leading up the VMAs. This was surprising to Chasez and the rest of the *NSYNC crew.

"I don't know if there are cameras in the ceiling of wherever, but it was unbelievable," Chasez said. "We were in rehearsal and Lance walked in and said, 'Well everybody knows now' ... and we were like, 'How in the world did these people figure this out?"

Before the performance, Bass originally denied the claims on his SiriusXM radio show, Dirty Pop.

"This is exactly how it happened, and I knew these rumors were going to fly," he said. "Joey, Chris and myself went to go see Justin's last show with Jay-Z at the stadium last Friday... I think that's what started the rumor that there's going to be this big reunion."

Bass did, however, say that he was happy with fan reactions to the rumor.

"It's amazing to see the reaction out there on Twitter and social media [and] how many people are supporting *NSYNC," he said. "It's so nice to see because when we ended things [over] 10 years ago, there was no social media, there was no Twitter," he said. "It's so cute to see how many people are supporting [us], and *NSYNC was even trending."

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