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Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam is a Netflix documentary series released on July 24, 2024. The series features the real-life story of "one of the largest Ponzi schemes" set up by Louis Jay Pearlman (also known as Lou Pearlman). Lou was a talent manager and musician Michael Johnson was one of his clients.
The documentary shows the journey of how Lou Pearlman launched several successful bands, including the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and O-Town. Out of many bands that he formed, the 'Natural' boy band didn’t gain as much recognition and popularity as the others did. The band consisted of Ben Bledsoe, Marc Terenzi, Patrick King, Michael Johnson, and Michael 'J' Horn.
Michael Johnson was the drummer of Natural until they disbanded in 2004. He now continues to play drums for multiple bands. He is currently associated with the New Beat Fund band as a drummer and also works with other bands like Lukewarm Freeda and Terenzi.
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Dirty Pop: Journey of Michael Johnson after leaving Natural Boy band
Michael Johnson is the executive producer of the Netflix docu-series Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam. The series depicts how even after Natural broke up, talent manager Lou wanted to work with Michael Johnson. As Johnson said in the series, he and Pearlman were going to start a business together that would have been focused on signing new bands and expanding to the world of television.
However, the plan was never executed. Instead, Pearlman gave Johnson an offer to join the New Natural and play drums for them. The artist denied Lou’s proposal as he wanted to move forward in his life and not get stuck again in things related to his past.
Even though Johnson refused to be part of the New Natural band, one of his former team members, Patrick King, joined it. Unfortunately, the new band couldn’t gain much recognition.
Johnson then started a new venture with Mike Castonguay, who was also a part of Natural. He wanted to continue his drumming career as shown in Dirty Pop. Michael and Mike worked together and started the band, Lukewarm Freeda, in 2005. Mike was the lead singer and guitarist, while Johnson remained the drum guy.
Lukewarm Freeda has dropped two albums since their formation. Their album Downtown Love was released in 2008 and had seven tracks. One of the songs from the album was I’m Gonna Break You, which was added to the soundtrack of a popular fantasy supernatural drama, The Originals. The second album titled Mike Castonguay was released after a gap of 12 years in 2022 and it had 32 songs.
Michael Johnson not only worked with Lukewarm Freeda but kept his way open to collaborate with several other groups. Michael also played drums for a band called Terenzi, founded by his ex-bandmate Marc Eric Terenzi.
The 42-year-old Michael currently plays drums for the New Beat Fund band, which was formed in 2011 in Los Angeles. His other bandmates include Jeff Laliberte, Paul Laliberte, and Shelby Archer.
Fans of music and documentary series can watch Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam on Netflix.
