Out singer Lance Bass revealed in an interview that he felt depressed being closeted while performing with NSYNC.

The 39-year-old Bass came out gay in a 2006 PEOPLE cover story. He and husband Michael Turchin are planning to start a family.

“It was torture,”Bass told The Huffington Post. “Onstage, I felt like I was just playing a character, but offstage, unfortunately, I didn't get to have my real life.”

Bass said that he felt depressed when he was not performing with the band.

“It was definitely a depression,” he said. “Ironically a depression: to be in one of the biggest bands in the world and have the best time of my life. But when I was home, I felt really horrible about myself. So yeah, it was sad.”

Being out wasn't an option, he said.

“The '90s were a different time. If you came out, if anyone knew you were gay, it was a disaster and people really flipped out. I felt like if anyone found out that I was gay, the record label would immediately drop us and the fans would hate us – these were all the crazy things that went through my head as a teenager,” Bass said.

Bass said that after coming out he lost a lot of friends “because they couldn't get over how I could lie to them for that long.”

Being out “would've changed everything,” Bass said, adding that he “would've actually been a happy person.”