I don't much like prefab faux-R&B teen pop, so you can imagine that I'm not a real big 'NSYNC fan - I don't hate them or anything, but they're just not really on my radar screen. But I have an impression that they are not bad guys, that they have not been absorbed into their own sphincters due to the fame, money, adulation, etc.
Lead singer Justin Timberlake's solo album comes out next week, though musically I can't imagine liking it much, I wish him well. He seems to have it pretty together, and to have some humility and perspective, as displayed here:
- TEEN-heartthrob Justin Timberlake is just 21 years old, but his life is at a crossroads. He's said bye bye bye to *NSYNC (at least for now); he and Britney Spears have gone their separate ways, and this Tuesday he puts it all on the line with a solo album.
Timberlake describes "Justified" as "hip-hop meets retro-rock, meets R&B."
"I love rock, I love soul. I grew up listening to Stevie [Wonder] and Marvin Gaye," he says. "Donny Hathaway is my favorite singer."
Getting to know Timberlake as a person is harder than getting to know his music. In this interview, he guarded his words and only got comfortable toward the end of the conversation.
When asked about his kiss-and-tell indiscretion during an interview with Hot 97, Timberlake said he and Spears did share bedroom intimacy. Knowing he goofed, Timberlake added, "I'm in so much trouble."
"I'd like to clear that up," Timberlake told The Post.
"That was a situation where I didn't want to seem like an ass on the radio, so I played along with Star [the interviewer]. I didn't take it that seriously, and I made a joke on air. I'm glad to make any public apology that needs to be made. I never would disrespect somebody - especially somebody I was with for four years."
- As for other women in this eligible young bachelor's life - he's been linked to actress Alyssa Milano - he played coy.
"Women are great," he said. "You want to know who I'm seeing?' "
Article comments
1 - Cal Ulmann
I'm no boy band fan. I have heard the main single and it sounds like what Micheal Jackson should have done. It sounded like something Micheal might have done on Thriller or Bad. Frankly, I'm impressed.
2 - Ernest Svenson
I'm no "boy band" fan either, but since my two daughters are, and I have to listen to the music they listen to in order to keep up my feeble attempt to "be cool" I have listened to N'Sync. I'll say this. The music is much more sophisticated (the cadences used, the harmonies, the melodic development) than most of the stuff you hear on the radio. Okay, it is highly promoted. I'll grant that. But so what? I wish I could sing half as well as those guys, and I wish I could write music half as good as the stuff that they perform (some of it they write and some they don't). I will definitely listen to Justin Timberlake's album (based on your review). And I'll bet I like it a lot.