“Every once in a while, one of us will find a good one and we’ll send it on the group text,” the singer tells PEOPLE

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Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake of *NSYNC
Today is April 30, which means, yes, “It’s gonna be May.”

The iconic line and endless memes that come with it started circulating decades ago, as *NSYNC fans honed in on group’s distinct singing of the world “me” in the band’s hit “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and paired it with pictures of Justin Timberlake doing … just about anything.

“There was the one meme that was like, Justin looking like he was dressed up in something from the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones and I sent him one of those,” bandmate Joey Fatone tells PEOPLE of the band’s group chat antics come April 30 each year. “It was really funny. Every once in a while, one of us will find a good one and we’ll send it on the group text.”

As Fatone remembers, “it wasn’t even a thing” when the song first came out in 2000. “It was just, ‘It’s gonna be me.’ When you sing it, it sounds a lot harsher if you’re trying to go, ‘It’s gonna be meeeee.’ It doesn’t sound very good to the ear. So when we pronounced it, [producer] Max Martin came up with the idea of saying, ‘It’s gonna be May.’ But we never knew that it was going to take off and become its own thing. And every year you get crazy stuff. But it’s hilarious. And we might as well embrace it.”

Mark Ashman

Joey Fatone for Great Wolf Lodge
 

Fatone is doing just that, partnering with Great Wolf Lodge on the waterpark hotel group’s “It’s Gonna Be May” promotion, which on May 1 will offer up to a 51% discount on stays through Aug. 15 with code BEMAY. (Discounts vary by date; some restrictions apply.)

“Even though my daughters [Briahna, 23, and Kloey, 14] are older, they still love water parks,” the dad of two, 47, says. “And we try to vacation as much as we can. Sometimes vacations are a little last-minute because of work, but we try to do things together as a family,” he adds. “We like to try to do different things, things we’ve never done before. And now that my kids are older, it’s a lot easier and more efficient to travel.”

“This summer, my daughters are going to Peru with my ex-wife [Kelly Baldwin],” he adds. “And I’m going to be touring a bit this summer with AJ McLean from Backstreet Boys, so my younger daughter will come on the road with me for a little bit.”

The stars’ “A Legendary Night” tour is “going great,” Fatone shares. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel: we’re doing some throwback stuff, some old-school stuff, new-school things you might’ve never heard before. We keep changing it up, and every show will be a little bit different from the other.”

Speaking to PEOPLE in April, McLean, 46, said his favorite *NSYNC songs to perform are “Digital Get Down” and “Space Cowboy.” On the flip side for Fatone, it’s “All I Have to Give,” he shares. “It’s one of my favorites.”

The stars have been learning each other’s choreography, too — “I’ve gotta learn the ‘As Long As You Love Me’ chair dance,” Fatone says — even if it was easier 20 years ago.

“We’re 40-something years old, jumping around like a bunch of 20-year-olds,” he says. “After the show it’s a lot of sore joints, a lot of vocal exhaustion. But I’m having a great time. It brings you on this magical journey of our careers. And we try to get out there to the fans as much as we can, because it’s a thank-you to them: thank you for being an *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys fan all these years.”