O-Town Say Diddy Scandal Is Hurting Their Career Even Though Their Making The Band Producer Was Actually A Different Disgraced Music Mogul
In 2002, O-Town finished their third season of Making The Band. Months later, the show was taken over by Sean “Diddy” Combs, and now the band is saying their career is crumbling due to the association.
“Of all the bands in Making The Band, we’re the only one not tied to him,” Jacob Underwood told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview. “The more people confuse us with a Diddy band and post our pictures with his story, the more it goes against us. We make a living touring and can’t afford to have [bookers] Googling us to find the latest Diddy clickbait.”
However, their episodes were instead helmed by Lou Pearlman, their disgraced former manager who was convicted of running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008 and died in 2016. “We already inherited our own infamous producer/manager [Pearlman] from our version of Making The Band and now another version and its mogul is affecting us,” Erik-Michael Estrada said in the same interview. “For our livelihood to be impacted this many years after the brand was moved to him is so unfortunate.”
Matt Rafal, O-Town’s agent, told the publication that a large gaming company removed the band from a party billing due to the Diddy association. “The offer was pulled due to the perception of the group being attached to Diddy,” Rafal said. “We made it clear O-Town’s Making The Band had no association with Diddy, but the company worried guests may be confused. Since the Diddy news, we’ve received questions and hesitancy from several talent buyers, especially for soft tickets like fairs and theme parks, as well as city-funded events.”
About Diddy, Estrada said, “There was always a salacious energy. He encouraged people to dip into their wild side, but I never witnessed anything firsthand. It wasn’t until I moved to L.A. that I started hearing how crazy things got. Gratefully, I can look my fiancé in the face and swear I never attended any after-hours version of a Diddy party.”
The documentary Diddy: The Rise Of A Bad Boy premiered on Peacock today, though Diddy is currently awaiting trial in prison on charges of sex abuse and racketeering after he was arrested in September and denied bail. Diddy continues to deny the many allegations.