Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is one of the most high achieving pop phenomenons of the past three decades. In 1993 he helped relaunch the Mickey Mouse Club where he sang and danced alongside Rylan Gosling and other now luminaries. Then he broke records and sold over 70 million albums worldwide with *NSYNC. And if that weren’t enough, he launched an incredibly successful solo career in the early aughts where he found a musical soulmate in Timbaland who Justin's worked with in some capacity over the course of his six solo albums.

So with all that hard earned success behind him, it’s been interesting to see the online drubbing JT's taken the last couple of years. Curious about how he might respond musically, it turns out, his new album Everything I Thought It Was, is everything you’d hope to hear from JT including a surprise *NSYNC reunion.

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks through Justin Timberlake’s new album with him as he dissects key tracks from it. JT also recalls how Micheal Jackson helped inspire his solo career, he breaks down the motivation behind each one of his solo albums, and he talks about why he felt now was the right time to reunite with his boy band brothers in ‘NSYNC. This episode was recorded at Amazon’s Studio126.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Justin Timberlake songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. I'm excited to bring you our episode today with
Justin Timberlake. JT is a massive talent. Anytime Michael Jackson
was asked about his successors in pop stardom over the
last decade of his life, he'd mentioned two people he
was proud of that he felt carried the mantle the

(00:36):
way he wanted to see it carried. Those two people
were Usher and our guest Justin Timberlake. Justin has had
a career as a singer on some levels since nineteen
ninety two, whereas he puts it on his new album
Everything I Thought It Was, he's been making first impressions
since he was barely eleven, and for nearly all of
those thirty two years. He's had a really charmed career.

(00:57):
Cast member of the relaunched Mickey Mouse Club back in
ninety three, where he was co stars with Ryan Gosling
and other now luminaries, then as a member of n SYNC, which,
along with The Backs Boys, were one of the defining
elements of late nineties and early odds pop culture. And
if that one enough, he launched an incredibly successful solo
career where he found a musical soulmate in Timbaland, who

(01:19):
he's worked with in some capacity on all six of
his solo releases. So with all of that harder and
success behind him, it's been interesting to see the online
drubbing he's been taken in the last couple of years,
and I was really curious how he might respond musically.
Turns out, what he did was make an album that
feels like a return to form. Everything I thought it

(01:40):
was is everything you'd hope to hear from JT, including
a surprise in sync reunion. On today's episode, I talked
through Justin Timberlake's new album with him as he dissects
key tracks from it. He also recalls how Michael Jackson
helped inspire his solo career, breaks down the motivation behind
each one of his solo albums, and talks about why
he felt now was the right time to reunite with

(02:02):
his boy band brothers and then Sync. This is broken
record notes, it's got the digital age. I'm Justin Mitchman.
Here's my conversation with Justin Timberlake, recorded at Amazon Studios
one twenty six. We kicked things off by talking about
the last song on his new album, Conditions.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I love that that's the first song you picked.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
It's gorgeous, thanks man, and you know what, it was
a pleasant surprise. One of the things I always loved
to about the first two albums is you ended with
like these really just really in your R and B bag,
you know, never again another song.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, shout out to Rick Rubin.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Shout out to Rick who under bigger, better things and
now conditions. When did you realize you wanted to start
making an album or put out an album.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
I had another kid and UH needed to pay the bills. No,
I'm kidding, I'm joking. I'm joking. So making this album
was different for me than any their album, you know,
to kind of go back to give you references, you know,
Justified was you know, me stepping outside of a massive

(03:20):
machine of pop music because I really felt inspired to
make music that I felt was more true to me right.
And I was also I think it's important and we
can get to it, because that's been part of making
this album is realizing that I really grew up in
the industry. You know, I spent my high school years

(03:43):
in the industry, my college years in the industry, and
with Justified, it was this overwhelming feeling, you know, I'll
never forget being inside a stadium at soundcheck and it
just it was this overwhelming feeling, right and the last
album that I did with the group within sync, like

(04:04):
I was really getting into really really I think, gaining
more self confiden into my songwriting and feeling like I
had a voice in that way.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Y'all wrote like, yeah, we did the bulk of the
album right, and you know, Gone in particular was a
song that I had written for Michael and Jackson.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Sorry, I don't know if you're gonna flex the flex
all the way, No, I'm kidding, And he had never
heard it, and so I ended up taking it to
the A and R meeting for that album and everybody
just freaked out over the song in a great way,
which is, you know, very gratifying. And later on, after

(04:51):
the song had come out, I guess Michael had heard
the song. He called me and he said, I want
to do the song and I want to do it
with you, and I said, well, it's it's out. It's
already out, you know, so maybe we can do like
acause I think you know, he was working on it
was I think it was the Invincible album at that point,
and he had he had, you know, brought in all

(05:14):
these songwriters pitch songs, and I remember the conversation was, well,
you know the records out, the song's out, maybe we
can make it like a in Sync featuring Michael for
maybe like a reissue of our album, and then it
can be Michael featuring n Sync for your album. I
was trying to figure out how.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
You had Stevie on that record too, so I could.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Have been, yeah, oh you did you really do this
that that was a good pool. That's another story I
could tell you about, but we'll get to that. Yeah,
but he said, no, I want to do it with you.
But for whatever reason, what was in the air for
me and feeling like I really wanted to express myself
in a different way, and then along with that conversation

(05:57):
and a few other things that were just in the
ether at the time, it led me down this path
of saying I've got to do it. I've got to
do it. It's this overwhelming need to do it. So
fast forward to Future Sex Love Sounds, and again it
was just like it hit me where I said, I
had this overwhelming need to do it. And at that time,
you know, Timberland and I had had conversations about like

(06:21):
sort of the absence of interesting dance music and how
could we flip that on its head, How could we
do what we've done before but really create a sound
and something that feels futuristic. And that's sort of what
led me down the path of the album title, right,

(06:42):
and with twenty twenty experience fast forward to that. That
was one of the craziest experiences of making an album
because it ended up being called the twenty twenty experience
because we spent twenty days. I said, let's just work
for a month. I'm not even I just want to
go in and make music. Let's work for a month.

(07:02):
I said, We're going to take weekends off like regular people.
We're not going to be in the studio till, you know,
six am every day. And we wrote twenty songs in
twenty days. Wow, you know, And you know, we brought
in other players and producers and people that I was
excited about, you know, and then Man of the Woods too.

(07:23):
It was it was the same thing. It was just
like this overwhelming feeling to make this album. And my
wife and I had our first son and we named
him Silas, which means Men of the Forest, you know,
which I said, Oh, Man of the Woods, that's an
amazing thing. So, like, you know, it was really more like, uh,
that's what gave me the idea for that album as well.

(07:47):
But okay, fast forward to this album. This album was
different because I was ready to get back in the studio,
but I didn't really have a specific direction on where
I wanted to go. I just wanted to explore again, right,
which I think is a healthy place to start. And
at the same time, I was enjoying my wife and

(08:09):
I had our second son, and I was enjoying the
time that I was getting with them so much. And
I remember someone saying to me, like it that it
goes so fast, you know, don't just keep working so
that you miss out on those like golden years with
your children. So I thought to myself, well, I'll just
go in the studio for kind of two weeks at
a time, no real sort of end in sight. And

(08:33):
I was also excited at this point to work with
new songwriters and collaborate with them, work with some new producers,
collaborate with them, along with working with you know, Tim again.
And yeah, it just became this process of like two three,
four years even.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Of just going in like two weeks at a time,
yeh or three.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Weeks at a time, or even if you had a
week blocked out, I will say two weeks, just to
sort of give you an approximation, right, And so I
sort of had this moment where I stopped and I
was like, how many songs do we have? It was
summer between ninety and one hundred, you know, looking at
one hundred songs, and so.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
At what point is this?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
This is this was probably a year ago, and so
then I said, Okay, which songs feel the most special?
And not with any rhyme or reason, but just give
me the best feeling. Right.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's a big task, though, man, you know eighty ninety songs.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it was. It was. It was right around one hundred,
right around one hundred songs, and it kind of got
to that point to where some of them started feeling
like connective tissue, They started feeling like symbiotic in a way.
And so then I just started narrowing them down and
perfecting those ones that I was really zoning in on.
And that's the eighteen that you that you have on everything.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
I thought it was, is that the feeling you had
when you finally got to the eighteen, like these eighteen
out of the dozens, this is what I was looking for.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, I think I took a lot of stock into
about twelve to fifteen of them, and then kind of
regrouped and said, Okay, what do I feel like for me?
What am I missing? You know? What color the in
the crayon box? Do I feel like I can add
to this? And always have this rule too when you

(10:29):
think you're done with the album, like write one more
song because something happens. I think when you feel like
you're done with an album that you kind of release
any sort of subconscious pressure to live up to your
own standards, that you take a breath, really like a
figurative breath, and then you write something crazy wow, right

(10:51):
and so funny enough that you started with conditions. That
was one later on in the process. Really, yeah, that
was one later on in the process. And yeah, I'm
I don't know, I guess maybe every artist says this,
but I'm just so incredibly proud of this album as
a whole, because I really think collectively it's my most

(11:12):
complete work from start to finish.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
That's amazing that you can end up with it being
feeling like your most complete work when you're the starting
point was no mission statement, not sure, you know, and
the other ones you've seemed like you had that right.
It's just wild to me that you can have created
something that feels the most complete to you from this
unknown place, starting at this unknown place, right.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Well, I think the other thing that happens as you
get a little bit older and you gain a little
more experience even in life, is you have this ability
to be able to step back and you're able to
look at it as a whole. And I think taking
time with it because I was also doing writer camps
where I was you know, we go in and write

(11:58):
a song, and I would say, look, this is not
for me specifically. Let's just write a song that we
think is great wow, you know, and if I feel
like I can put my thing on it, then I
will go in and make my own. So I think
having that time to digest a lot of the music

(12:20):
it helped me with each song, where in comparison, making
something like twenty twenty experience that felt so quick. We
definitely sat with it for a while because we went
back in Tim and I and tinkered with all the interludes,
and all the kind of transitions. But I think I

(12:41):
also in having the experience of being able to work
in the studio at the level that I felt was
my best and having time to live my life. As
you go through life, you realize how important patience is.

(13:02):
And if I did have any keyword that was part
of a mission statement, like you said, then patience was
that because I would go back in and tinker with
each song so much until I felt like, okay, we
can take that part out, because tinkering sometimes is not
adding right, you know, Arranging your song sometimes is almost

(13:24):
like omitting a piece that you feel like maybe doesn't
make sense to you within that composition.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, right, when you're listening with that ear towards arrangement.
Do you think you've listened differently now than you did
when you were younger, maybe ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
I think you become more adept at being able to understand.
But I think just through experience understand Oh, let's try
horns on this. Yeah, for instance, Oh, this this section
would be nice if we add an acoustic guitzar. And
then even like I said before, no, no, no, take

(14:04):
take the synth out right there, Like let the track
breathe while I'm saying this part over the song, and
so yeah, it's been an amazing process, really the most
gratifying process that I've had making an album, because I
really took this bull by the horns and was out
front producing everything. And I think also too, just gaining

(14:26):
more confidence and gaining more confidence because working with such
great producers throughout my career you pick up so much,
you know, you become a sponge in the studio, and
I've been lucky to work with producers that are humble
as well. They want to hear the artist's ideas, they
want to collaborate, and I've always been that way. I

(14:48):
enjoy collaborations so much, so I think, yeah, it led
us down this path and it's dense like all of
my albums. But I also feel like, I mean, I've
been in this industry since I was ten years old,
which seems crazy to say, but I don't think I've
ever taken a moment to really just stop and look

(15:11):
around and appreciate all of it collectively. You know, I
would reference certain moments and say, oh, that was amazing,
that was amazing, But I don't think I've ever set
back and looked at the whole of it to say,
look at how blessed I've been and lucky I've been
to have all these opportunities and to continue to work

(15:34):
not just in music but in film and in television,
and so it's been such an amazing ride. I think
this is the first time I really just stopped and said,
this is really something just to be gratified by.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Was it having kids that allowed you to maybe have
that perspective.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
I don't think it hurt, you know. I think having
children will teach you a lot about yourself. You know,
before I had children, I heard people say things like, oh, yeah,
they pick us. Like when I heard people say that,
I was like someone burning incense. Yeah, it felt a
little guru e yeah. But what I do believe is

(16:15):
that they really show you who you are. And I
just like I said, I think I just I stopped
for the first time and looked at all the places
that I've been and all the things that I feel
like I've accomplished, and that energy got put into this album.
And that's really the title. Everything I thought it was,

(16:37):
you know, with every color of the rainbow of this
life so far and my passion being music, first to
be able to have lived a life as a creator.
I mean, it's just a really special thing. It's something
that when you gain some sort of success and it
starts to feel like, oh, let's keep this rolling, let's

(16:59):
keep this rolling. I think that can be sort of
a creative death trap that urged too, Like I got
a well two pret do something to create something on
a timer, you know, to have this pressure on yourself
to do that. And I don't think it's any mystery
that I take so much time in between albums because
I really enjoy living my life and it feeds me.

(17:23):
It feeds me as a creator, as a songwriter and
a producer, and as an artist. It's fed how I
even characterize my vocals on this record. How I sing
on this record?

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (17:36):
How do you mean?

Speaker 2 (17:38):
I just think that there's songs on this album that
because of the way that I wrote them and because
they were coming these ideas and feelings were coming out
of me. I mean, we can continue to use conditions
as an example. When I go in to record the vocal,
it's almost like it's so ingrained in you that all

(18:01):
you have to do is speak the lyrics in the
melody that you've written because you know that the tone
will come across in such an honest.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Way that emotion was really Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
To simplify it, I didn't have to find it.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
You know some singers who are not songwriters, and even
songwriters that are singers as well. I've found two they
didn't get. In conversations with them sometimes they say, oh, yeah,
I didn't. I didn't feel it vocally that day, yeah,
you know, and I never I never had a moment
like that on this album. Everything felt like I call

(18:37):
it the carbonation where if if it's bubbling up for you,
then it's the thing to follow. It's like if anxiety
could be like a good thing. It's like, you know,
and all of these songs just when I went back
to sort of review them, because I've had I had

(18:59):
different iterations of this album, you know, with some of
the songs, and then I would write another song because
I was just like, well, let's write another one. Let's
see what happens. And I don't know if you ever
get to a point to where you're like, this is it.
It's done. But I think you get to a point
to where you can say, okay, I can put that

(19:20):
out in the world and let it live.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
And feel good and feel good about it and it
feels honest. Yeah, after this quick break, we're coming back
with more from justin Timberlake. We're back with JT. You know,
I had it really considered it until you were expressing
that so much of this album the vocal was just there,

(19:44):
like the performance, the take was just there. Well, you
have to find your voice on it. To degree, do
you think acting and honing that craft has helped the
way you sing?

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Absolutely? I mean I've sort of talked about that my
whole career because I get the question a lot, like well,
which one do you like better? And I was like, well,
you know, we're talking apples and oranges. I like them both. Yeah,
And I think what happens is I think we have
this nature as humans to be divisive, and I want

(20:17):
to be clear about not even in a negative way.
I mean, we can be divisive in a negative We've
all done it right, But I think we have to
find the sliver or category for why something is the
way that it is. And when I think about music
and film, to me, they feed each other so much.
I've been such a centophile since I was young and

(20:41):
I've been such a big fan of music since I
was young, and yeah, I could sort of we could
go back and talk about songs from my past, and
I could give you sort of a character because future
sex love sounds to me. When I was trying to
describe to people what it was, and I find myself
using film references. I said, it's like if James Bond

(21:02):
found himself in a Kubrick movie, or like he was
in Yeah, Eyes Wide Shut or two thousand and one,
you know, with how futuristic it sounded. So I don't know.
I find that each one feeds the other.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
What was the reference on this one, or like if
you if you had one film.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Refer Oh, man, I shouldn't have done that, because now
you put me on the spot. No, no, no, I
honestly this album is the most me that I've ever been.
And at this point too, I've heard people say to me,
you don't you don't need to make an album?

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Really people say that to you.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, yeah, they say, like, you know, you don't need
to do it, look at what you've done and you know,
and I'm just like, but I need to make music.
That's something that on a cellular level is a part
of me, and I think that energy went into this.
I think being a father and a husband that energy
went into this. But I think also having that moment

(22:04):
that I talked about before where you really sit back
and you're like, let me take stock and like, what
does this all mean at this point in my life?
What do I want to do and who do I
want to be? And I was just having those moments
about my life and they affected who I wanted to

(22:25):
be and what I wanted to say as an artist.
And I found myself weirdly enough when I would play
the album for close friends or people that I really respect,
like I would get a comment like, Oh, this sounds
like all of your albums before this in one album,
but new and fresh. And then I'd get comments like, oh,

(22:47):
this sounds like everything I thought I would want you
to make. And so it also led me to the
album title everything I thought it was.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
It's sort of true, like there are moments throughout the
course of the eighteen songs that definitely feel like in emotion,
just feel like they reference other projects that you've done.
It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
It wasn't like this incredibly forefront conscious thing.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
YEA, like Babe Ruth calling it hit and I'm gonna do.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well to be honest with you, that to me is
another death trap. Yeah. Like I said, I think the
healthiest place to be is like I don't know absolutely.
I think I think that's the most important thing you
can learn in this life as and as an artist
or whatever your career is is to be able to
say I don't I don't know, which leads you to

(23:38):
the path of going, well, let me figure out what
it means to me.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Have you had moments where you've caught yourself feeling like
maybe I'm acting as if I know too much here?

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, that's uh. That has to be where fuck around
and find out phrase is the most relative you know
what I mean? Because yeah, I think you get to
this point where you realize, oh, there's a lot that
there's a lot of experience I have and there's things
that I do know that I can always go back
to as north stars in creating. But that's the beauty

(24:14):
of making music is discovering something about yourself about the
music itself every time. And I think that for me,
that's why I never want to make exactly what I
did before. You always want to find new mountains to
climb or new landscapes to explore, and.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
You definitely did some of that on here as well.
There's definitely stuff on here that sounds like it's a
new color palette, even as there's other things that sound
reminiscent of things you've done. There's some a bit about
it that reminds me of like Man in the Woods.
Some of it reminds me like twenty twenty, but also
just feels like different. And there's another one of the
songs I was just struck by when it came on.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
This is really fun for me, by the way, because
now that people are hearing the music, it's interesting to
me if they're fans of my music to hear I'm
gonna let you play it. I don't want to. I
want to tee this up too much, but it's just
cool for me to hear what that means to them.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, this was one of the first times in a
long time where I had a new album and I
listened to it, and I found myself really being surprised
with my reaction to certain things.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Oh wow, amazing, so and thank you. But I think
it also speaks to something else that I've discovered is
that when you make music, the success of it, the
biggest success of it is that you finished it, because
it was somewhere inside of you.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
And I always think about the eight year old me that,
you know, in big shout out to my mother. She
played me so many different types of music growing up,
you know, on the way to school, on the way
home from school, on the way to the dentist, on
the way to the you know, wherever. You know, if
I was to try to pick a playlist, for instance,

(26:00):
or make a playlist from the time I was eight
years old until I was like fourteen, it's so incredibly diverse.
And that's because I just grew up in a really
musical family and my mother was such a big fan
of all these different styles of music that she would
play me so many different things. And I think about

(26:20):
it a lot these days because and probably because I
have children as well, and I see how their influence
or they're just pick things that they like.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, what are your kids like?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
They like everything? You know. My three year old's favorite
song at the moment, careless whisper and knows every word.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
What, Yeah, did you play it for?

Speaker 2 (26:42):
No?

Speaker 4 (26:42):
No?

Speaker 2 (26:42):
He I think my nanny when she was putting him
down for a nap because I sing songs for them.
You know. Smile is a big one for Silas my
oldest and Fineas my youngest. You know, Smiles a big
one for bedtime. In nap time, I would sing Ribbon
in the Sky. We would obviously go to things like

(27:02):
Somewhere over the Rainbow or things like that, but I
would sing a song for you, Donnie Hathaway version. Yeah,
it's been interesting. My eight year old is now at
a place with like his friends in school where he's
really gotten turned onto my music. So it's cool to
see him. He was for two weeks he was like

(27:24):
crime River, crimea River. He just loved that song. And
then two weeks after that he was like chop me
up from Future Sex Love Sounds, And I was like,
you have such you know, like it's cool to see
them experience all this work that you've put into before
they got here. Yeah, you know, and yeah, he's he's

(27:45):
into it.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
So that's kind of bugged them ount too that It's
like because again, like their experience of you is like
their three years or their eight years of existence. Sure,
and then you've had this whole incredible life prior to them,
and I think that really boggles kids' minds.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
You know, yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting to have
conversations with them when they get older, yeah, to kind
of walk them through what it was, what it's all
been like up until this point. I mean, don't get
me wrong, I'm not I don't want to stop, you
know what I mean. But but I was. I was
getting to a point of when you were saying, you know,
whatever you're about to play reminded you of something from

(28:21):
Man of the Woods and twenty twenty experience, because I
was having this conversation the other day too, and I
think funny enough, I think Rick Rubin touches on this
where it's like, once the song's finished and it's out
in the world, your your work is done. I remember
when I put out Justified, and I was like, I
was so happy that that I felt like I made
an R and B album, And then like the first

(28:43):
week of reviews. You know, I'm twenty one, twenty two
at the time, first week of reviews its categorized in
the pop albums and I was like, what you know
and stop, oh thanks, I mean it's also a pop album,
you know what I mean, well at this point too,
like why are we even talking about genres? Like why why?

(29:05):
And also too like why are we again? This goes
to maybe like our divisive nature as humans, why are
we so quick to say that it doesn't make sense
for an artist to try something new, to put on
a different whole outfit and experience that for themselves, you
may get something unbelievable. It's like when Dylan went from

(29:29):
acoustic to electric and it was like, you know, he
would have thought he said something crazy, like you know,
his fans specifically, I mean, how even.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
He goes into a gospel and people like deride them
for a lot. I mean, now people love those.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Records totally, totally. So that's been a real lesson throughout
my career as well, to say, once you finish the
song and the album and you put it out in
the world, that's the beauty of it. That's to me,
one of the most beautiful parts about art is that
we take it and we put it into our system

(30:03):
and our life and we make it our own, and
that is naturally going to make it something different. You know,
you think back to there's certain songs that if you
heard out of nowhere, might trigger Uh. Oh, I remember
this summer when this song came out and all of
a sudden, your senses go back to that place.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Dude, I'll be real with you. When when I was
doing a lot of listening for this mayor Christmas Happy
Holidays came up and I was like, yo, I didn't
thought about this in a minute, and it instantly just
put me in a time.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
You write where they were when you heard it.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
And it was a beautiful experience.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, you like you smelled the cinnamon from the egg nod.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Christmas was like you know, I was responsible for nothing.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
It was pure joy, was exactly you were. Just you
couldn't wait to open up those presents. Yeah. Yeah, but
but I think it's been fun to see the reaction
to people even closest to me.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
How's your wife process this stuff, like your music, your
new record?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Oh well, she loves it, thank god. Now would she
be honest with me. There's actually a couple of songs
that I wasn't going to put on the album that
she was insistent that I put on the album alone.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Almost do you listen with her?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, she comes, she comes to the studio and yeah,
I can always tell when my friends and family come
to the studio. If it's a song with tempo and
we're getting the heads or bobbin and people are moving,
then we're onto something for other songs too, Like you
can tell if you're getting a reaction by the people

(31:47):
closest to you, who know you the best. But it
really made me realize again and I was able to
metabolize it this time for myself that once you do
finish that thing, you know everybody's going to interpret it
the way that they do. That's a beautiful thing, you know,

(32:07):
That's what that's what it's for. That's what I used
to do when I was a kid, you know. I mean,
you go to an art gallery and five people could
be standing in front of a painting and they're all
going to get something different from it.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Some people love it, so people think it's shit. Some
people think that I could do that. Some people can.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
And by the way, and by the way, those reactions
could be literally based on what happened to them fifteen
minutes ago. Yeah, but that's the beauty of art is
we put it in our lives. I mean, how many
times have I gone to a movie Because before I
had children, I used to love to go to the
movies by myself. I was sneaking to theaters and go
to the movies by myself, sit in the back best.

(32:43):
It's like the best two hour checkout.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Oh wait till that comes back and you think you're
going there to escape, But the first thing you do
is you go, oh, I've done that. Oh yeah that's me,
or oh yep, that reminds me of my dad.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah you know, yeah, you think that's It's gate you engage, you.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Start to relate, you start to connect, and you connect
based on your own life experiences. And that's been a
really freeing thing for me to really bring to myself
because I feel like it was always there, but I
really couldn't. You know, maybe when you're younger and you
you have this healthy ego, you want people to understand

(33:20):
who you are more than anything, right, definitely, but they don't,
you know, not fully. Only you can do that. And
that's also a beautiful place to arrive too, because I
think it gives you gives you a layer of self
love that you didn't have before. So anyways, I'm rambling on,
but I want to hear what song reminded you of
those two albums.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Okay, let's listen to some sanctified Okay.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I don't want to know how then not get out
of control?

Speaker 3 (33:57):
The bringing me down?

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, you know I'm walking this amazing.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
I know you a good one. That's crazy track.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Thanks man.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
What was the initial spark for that song?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Well, my co producers Rob Knox and Danger along with
my guitarists. I think the discussion came up like can
you make trap swing? And so that's why the drum
sounds in the verses are the way they are. It's
tight sonically, it's very tight. And then you know, there's

(34:38):
there's blues, there's gospel, there's R and B, there's hip hop,
there's rock and roll, all within this this one song. Yeah,
And it was a little bit of a blackout making
that song. But I remember when we were done, we
just all looked at each other like what did we
just do? Yeah, that's a special one. I love that song.

(34:59):
I can't wait to perform that song on tour.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Song is gonna go crazy, you know, And we.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Did SNL and having Toby on it as well.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Toby's on it. When did you get Toby on?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
I just got turned on to him. Like I stumbled
upon his music and I just went into a rabbit
hole of the stuff he had done up until that point,
and I was like, man, this guy is incredible. And
you ask him who his favorite rappers are, He's like
three thousand, Lauren Hill. I don't know who his top

(35:30):
five is, but I know those were in his top
five because we talked about it, and You're like, it
makes sense. He's just really, really special. And there was
something about the gravel of his voice. He sounds like
a preacher and I was like, that's it. That guy
on this song. I just want to see what he
would do. And so it's funny. I set up like

(35:54):
a face time with him. He was like, I didn't
even know you knew any of my music, and I
was like, I'd love to collaborate with you, and I
think I have something that I just hear your voice on.
And he came and met me. I was working in
Miami at the time. This is one of those like
two week writer trips. I was at Dangers Studio in
Miami and I played it for him and he was like,

(36:18):
it was like you saw this spark go off and
he was like, Okay, that's it. I'm getting on this song.
It was like he claimed it, and that's when I
knew it was gonna end up being special in his verses,
insane insane, And he went into another room for like,
I don't know, a couple of hours and like really

(36:38):
perfected what he wanted to say on the record and
listen to my lyrics because I had had the song
done up until that point. Once I met with him,
and once once we actually got together in the studio,
it was just like another kindred spirit. Yeah, man, he's special,
special artist.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
I want to play another one.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Okay, we'll play a bit of play m. I've been
making first impressions since I was Bally and levin Stead
come around, you give a lesson.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Aday. There's so much weird shit in that song, but
it sounds like a club hit. It's like what is
going on?

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Like yeah, that's I mean, that started with a groove. Actually,
Ryan Tedter sent sent me the idea for that, and
he was like, he goes, I did something that You're
the only human in the world who will understand it.
And he pitched that to me the same way I
pitched Sanctified to Toby's, Like I just want to hear
what you would do with this. I was also in
the studio with Danger at the time, and we both

(37:44):
both got the idea and we just started beefing it up,
you know, just beefing up the track because Ryan had
sent me just like a scale idea, right, and he
had like a verse and a chorus idea, and which
is not far off where we landed at the end
of the song, at the end of creating a song. Yeah,
it just it's a it's a libe.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
We didn't have that. That was or I don't want
to sing you to you and I know.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
No, no, no, go ahead, I'm not going. I always
do that to Timberland in the studio and he's like, man,
when you sang the if I wrote you and then
he won't go up and I'm like, no, keep going,
keep going. That's my brother, man. Yeah, it had that
sort of walk down at first in the in the verse.

(38:35):
That was kind of an idea that I think Ryan
had and and the co writer who wrote with me,
Michael Pollock, great songwriter as well, and yeah, it just
needed the heel on the floor, so to speak. Dude.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
It has that feel of like like parliament, you know
what I mean where it's yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah. Another shout out to Adam Blackstone, who played the
bass on that. It's interesting too, like there's a synth
that there's a low scent that comes in on the
bridge on that song that I don't know. For whatever reason,
it reminded me of DJ quick and I can't I
don't know why, but I think if you like it's
interesting you said Parliament, because I think if you, if

(39:18):
you go back and listen to a lot of quicks
records as well, like it's got that saying whoom. Yeah,
you know he's got a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
I mean, I love that Quicks of reference for you.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh dude, I mean one of the goats. Yeah, but underrated,
criminally underrated. Yes, justice for DJ quick Man. Come on.
I think he's doing fine. He seems happy.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
I'm sure he's great.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, I don't know him personally. Actually, my favorite part
of the song is is the little outro part where
you think the song's ended, just like go until we
bring the horns in.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
There's a lot of tricky stuff to me, like technicol
it like it switches like halfway through.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Like well, that's my favorite song currently.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
That's my favorite let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
And originally those two parts had nothing to do with
each other. Separate song, just totally separate songs. And the
interlude at the beginning, which I called never Get Enough interlude,
that's what we were calling it before, and I think
it was like originally a full step higher than Technicolor,

(40:23):
and we were just working on that. Originally, Technicolor started
with that reverse guitar that comes in as this what
feels like the second part of the song, right, and
that would have been enough, I'm sure, But for some reason,
we were working on that on the interlude, and I said, wait,
let's drop this to the same key as what we're

(40:44):
working on with Technicolor. And for whatever reason, like all
of a sudden, it just started making sense to me
that this is just one piece of music, because actually,
when I played the album first, when I played it
for my team, originally those two parts were broken up,
really yeah, they were broken up, and it was called
and never Get Enough interlude into.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
So you already had it like a version of the album,
really had it separate.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Oh yeah, wow. And then I said, you know what
this is just to me, this is one piece of music.
The first two minutes of it, which I guess to
me are the interlude to the song. I don't know.
I feel like they set you up for what it is.
It just to me, all of a sudden, it was like, no,
this is one composition, this is one piece of music.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
You're really not afraid to mash things together, merge them together,
make songs longer than other people would would dare make
a song? And is it something you're listening to coming
up or what is that that allows you to feel
that freedom to not be confined to like just a

(41:49):
typical pop song structure.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
What's interesting you have that book right there because that
a night at the opera. Queen. Yeah, you got a
Queen Coffee table book right here for those of you listening,
there's a Queen Coffee table book. When my parents divorced
and I would go, you know, like the weekends with
my father, he had a record player and he had
a night at the opera that was probably about nine

(42:13):
or ten years old, and I remember seeing the album cover,
you know, this like sort of psychedelic art, and I
was like, I want to know what that music sounds like.
And I remember I got to Bohemian Rhapsody right. And
obviously that song's been referenced in so many different ways,
like you always think of like Wayne's World. But I

(42:34):
remember thinking, like whatever they were doing in comparison to
the songs I'm hearing on the radio that are three
minutes at a time, there's no rules for these guys.
Whoever this is, there's no rules for these guys. And
look at what it turns into. It's like it's an
opera within itself. And I remember also, and these are

(42:57):
things that are just coming to me right now. So
I remember also hearing the not faded out version of
God to Give It Up by Marvin Gay, and you
know it's like, oh, yeah, they used to cut song
short because vinyls only had so much space. Yeah, so
you just would fade out. Yeah, that's why fades were

(43:17):
a thing, right, Not that that's like the reason to
do it now that we have all any available space
you want to make a song. Yeah, I don't know.
It's just it's a feeling because like your reference play,
I mean, I think that song is like under three minutes.
I think I could be wrong, though, Well I'm proving
your point clearly that I don't pay attention to how
long or short songs are because I don't even know

(43:38):
what the time code is. Three and a half three
and a half, okay, well without the outro and maybe
it's I don't know exactly, but yeah, I don't know.
Sometimes songs should be short, yeah, sometimes not.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
After this last break, we'll be back with the rest
of my interview with Justin Timberlake. We're back with the
rest of Justin Timberlake. I want to go back to
that Stevie store. You said you had a Stevie store.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
That's still in your mind. No, that was just having
him come in play Harmonica.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
I was body, get Stevie. Wonder if lehrmant he doesn't
do anything?

Speaker 2 (44:16):
You know, the answer is not to every question. You
don't ask, I guess and I just asked him and
he said yes, and he showed up at the studio.
And I remember it was the NBA Finals, was the
Lakers versus the Sixers. It was the AI days when
they finally made it to the playoffs. And obviously Stevie

(44:36):
being from Philly and me living, you know, starting to
live in LA at the time, there was a lot
of trash talking going on. They were just about to
start They had just both made it to the finals,
and he was like, nah, man, I think he said
something like Philly in five and I was like, what

(44:57):
I said, you do know who Kobe Bryant is, right,
you know? And so it was like we were just
having fun with it, and he was like, I'll bet
you dinner at mister Chows and he's still never taking
me to dinner. So I just want to make that
public knowledge in case he hears this that Stevie, you
still owe me dinner at mister Chase Squoch. But yet,

(45:21):
like I just remember he finished one take on the
harmonica and there were a couple of notes that were
slightly out. I remember being in the in the control room,
and you have to have to set this scene for you,
like Stevie wonders in the booth playing harmonica. I'm at
the board and I'm twenty maybe at the time, and

(45:46):
then it's like some of the notes. I was like, ah,
I wonder if he bent it like that on purpose
or like was that a stylistic choice? And like even
if I asked that question, is he going to be
like what the did you just say to me? You know,
like you don't know it is your first time working
with one of your heroes. To me, one of the
greatest songwriters of all time and one of the greatest

(46:06):
voices of all time. Just like just like when you
when you when you think about people who are here
to do something you could put Stevie likes he from
a very young age. He knew what he was here
to do. You know, Yeah, that mission was on him,
you know what I mean. Like, and he goes, uh, so,

(46:31):
what do you think? And before I could even I
was like, I looked everybody else in the stair. I
was like, what do we say? What do I say?
And he goes, you know the key of this song.
It's the only only harmonica I didn't bring for the
key of this song. I have like four harmonicas he goes,
and I referenced it off of songs that are normally
in the key that you sing. He goes, but he

(46:51):
threw me for a loop. He goes, just give me
a minute. He took one of his and forgive me,
Like I don't. I don't even remember the key of
that that song's in or what he had, but he
took a harmonica that was, you know, tuned to be
in a different key. And came back and played it perfectly,

(47:11):
and then he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it,
and I was like, I mean he did, like god,
he did like three passes at it. And that's when
you realize, like, I'm in the presence of the goat. Yeah,
you know, like those are the experiences when I talk
about taking stock and all the incredible moments I've had

(47:32):
with my heroes and where I feel like I'm at
in my life right now. That's why it felt good
to put this album out, you know, because I think
back to those types of experiences and I don't know,
they just I'm like giggling at how it's all gone down.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
You know, that's a crazy situation to find yourself. And
at twenty years old, you've got Stevie Wonder coming to
play track and you're trying to figure out how do
I can I tell him?

Speaker 2 (48:00):
I mean, if you put me on stage with the
guitar that was out of tune, it would probably take
me a good five minutes to figure out what to
play for, you, you know, and this guy was just
like that's when you realize, like that that guy is
here to do this.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
It's insane. Yeah, did it feel good at getting in
sync back on this record. Getting I mean, you guys did.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
The troll soundtrack as well. The troll soundtrack was fun,
but it was a bit of a specialty item, you know,
with the plot of the film and and and sort
of the humor we were taking from it.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
It was a bit like when Kurb did the The
Seinfeld season. It's kind of felt like.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
That, totally totally, but this one funny enough. This is
actually Paradise is the first song that we got back
together to the Red Yeah, so we did that one first,
and then you know, we did the Trolls record. Some
of the guys did their vocals on the same day
on both songs. But I have finished writing it and

(49:03):
I recorded my own version of it, obviously with less harmonies,
you know, less stacked vocals. But as I was listening
back to it, there was something in the ether. Again,
I don't know. Sometimes these decisions get made and you
feel like there's like somebody tapping you on the shoulder
to say, like, what if you did this? And I

(49:24):
feel like, when it's so loud, it's a moment where
we say what if we did? And I felt incredibly
gratified that my instincts were right about that, because I
think I really think we sound amazing great on this song.
And when you break down some of the lyrics too,

(49:44):
there's some of it that I think could be interpreted
as how we feel about the fan base that supported
us from the beginning and even up until now, how
we feel about each other. You know, we've been down
a long, long road. Now look at where we are.
We were chasing after hopes and dreams and we're still
under the stars. Like Kenyon Dixon, Big Shout Out Co

(50:07):
wrote ten songs on this album with wrote that song
with me, And when that lyric came together, sitting back
listening to it, for some reason, I felt like I
was having a conversation with my four brothers from and
Sink and I was like, we gotta try, you know,
I gotta send them this song. I gotta play it
for him. And jac was the first one I reached

(50:29):
out to because obviously we share a lot of the leads.
And he came in and heard it and I said,
what do you think we would sound like together on
this and he was like, let's find out. We went
right in the booth and it was just like it
was crazy because we looked older to each other. But
it was like no time it passed, you know, and

(50:49):
we were back having fun together and recording the song.
And he sounds amazing on it as well, another one
of my favorite singers. Yeah, and so do the other guys.
I mean, just came in and it just felt like
this amazing homecoming for us, and like it's an amazing reunion.

(51:10):
I'm excited for fans of us as a group, fans
who might discover us from this song to kind of
understand what we accomplished in that era. Yeah, really really
special and I'm excited, honestly. It's it was one of

(51:31):
the moments that got me really emotional in making this album,
because you know, you have so much shared history and
to have kind of, you know, gone our separates and
achieved things individually and to come back together for it
to sound the way that it does, it's like a

(51:52):
perfect representation of how we should sound now in my opinion,
and that's why I pitched it to them, But also
even deeper than that, to have another moment with them
that who knows, I mean, you know, who knows what
what that all means. But because I don't think you
you know, you can't look too far forecast. You can't

(52:14):
look too far in the forecast because the weather changes, right,
and everybody's got their own lives and things they want
to do.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Well, I had to feel good, I mean, because it's like,
you know, it's all I feel like they're over the years,
y'all ever gonna get back together, y'all ever gonna do something.
It's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like
being able to be like kind of like must have
relieved some pressure to where now if you want to
you can or not, it's not going to be this big.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
I think that's the way it feels for us. Well,
I think what you're talking about is like that can
happen a little bit with the with the whole game
of it, Yeah, where a question gets floated out there
and then it's like the whole thing becomes like your
mother a little bit, where like the stereotypical joke you

(52:56):
could make about a mom where it's like, oh, she's
a nice girl when you're gonna get married, and then
you get married, it's like, hey, mom, we got married.
When you're gonna have a child, you know, it's like, okay,
mommy had a child, We're gonna have another child. You know,
it can turn into that a little bit. But I
think for I think for the five of us, I
think we feel like this has to be on our terms.
And I think it also speaks to what I was

(53:19):
talking about before. For myself with this album, is really
enjoying this moment and you know, savoring all of it.
And I think that's that's what it has to be
for us, if there was ever going to be anything,
you know, But I will say that I think when
people hear the song and us on it, it's an

(53:39):
emotional experience.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Yeah, man, just like what a blessing to have, like
all of the people you've been fortunate enough to collaborate
with over the span of your career and just to
have them there when it feels right for a song
or it feels right for a project to be able
to pull and harness all like you know what I mean,
Like wow, Like.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Well and it's not again like this wasn't something that
was a completely conscious thing. But now that I look
at the whole album, if you're calling an album everything
I thought it was, to have that portion included in
a way that to me is so spectacular. Yeah, and
again the song itself, everybody's performance on it. We sound

(54:23):
like us, but we sound like us now we sound
like the future of us. But also just to have
the experience with them, it means a lot to me.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Before we wrap up, can I play Can I play
something from welling? From another?

Speaker 2 (54:36):
We can go over if there's something you if there's
records you really want to talk about. I'm so excited
to actually talk about the album.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
You have no.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Idea we could talk well, Infinity Sex is great and
it's not what I was thinking from the title let's
play little.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
What were you expecting like some like Joe Tosy or Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
That's what I think it was, because you know something
first get out like kind of scan the time, you
kind of like, Okay, I feel like it's gonna this
is gonna be the.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
The first person to say that. By the way, you're
in good comforty with the people who said they're like, oh,
oh this is what this is.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Yeah, let's hear it one another.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I love that features a mess.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Thanks uh so that that song was originally an idea
that Calvin Harris sent to me, just like baseline groove
type thing, and it was a little bit faster than
that too. It was on some like real off the
wall vibes. But then Timberland and I got a hold
of it, and Tim made this really sort of wise
decision on all the stuff that we worked together on.

(55:53):
He had started this this thing called Beat Club that
he brought me in on, right, and he just really
wanted to find new producers and and he was just
racking up all these like this amazing talent and he
brought some guys in that that he was like, I'm
gonna bring these guys in. These guys, You're gonna you're

(56:14):
gonna vibe with these guys. It was. It was Fetti
and Angel and we also had Lawrence from fifteen hundred
in the studio. We have this James, Yeah, yep, James
and I wrote that together.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Great, and there's nothing but amazing things to say about you.
But oh really he has no qualms.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
It seems Oh no, he doesn't care. Yeah, you don't
give a fuck. He is extremely honest. One of my
favorite things about him. He's also hilarious human, very funny person.
Like I was like, you could host a hilarious podcast yourself,
But yeah, Lawrence adopts him from fifteen hundred as well,
Like that's a perfect sort of scene to set for you.

(56:55):
For how this album was made, it was like bring
them in, bring them in. The more the merrier. You know,
I'm not precious with this. Let's just let's have a
good time. Let's make great songs. Like I said, let's
have a blast doing this, and that energy will come through.
And so we took what Calvin had sent, slowed it
down a little bit and started doing our thing to it.

(57:17):
And then of course as that song, I'm excited for
my fans specifically to hear that song because it really
is like Tim and I in our bag along with
these this other talent that he brought in that are
basically like you know, have listened to a lot of
our music together previously.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Well, you guys are the archetype in a lot of ways.
For like what those a good amount of people that
are like they looked at what y'all did together in
terms of what they want to make. So it's no shock.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
I'll tell them you said that. But you know, like
as that song gets to the end, there's that whole
internet at the end right where it's like, oh, okay,
this is definitely you feel that sort of future sex
love sounds vibe of how it kind of turns into
a whole completely different song.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, have you tried working with Pharrella or the Neptunes
more generally like Chat and Pharrell.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I have done some stuff with Farrell those that is
in the vault recently that might see the like to
day soon in the future somewhere. Future is a mess man.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Future, future is a mess man.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
We need it now that I said, I told you
I had one hundred songs and then narrowed it down
at eighteen. So yeah, these are the songs that all
felt like the book. These are the chapters of this book.
But make no mistake, like Frell and I have still
have great synergy, and we have some music that we've
made that I know will come out. So I'm excited
about that too.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
I'd love to hear that.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
I'd love to hear that. All in due time, All
in due time.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Speaking of the future, future is a mess I was
reading the Usher said he's been on you about doing.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
A collaborative album, not recently, not recently, said that he
has been very busy recently.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Well he's been Yeah, well, yes, an incredible residency Usher's icon.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Man, that's a bad man. Would you do a m
of course, I think it just has to be the
right one. We've actually we we actually went in the
studio originally. I think I think it was one of
those things where I was maybe gonna go in the
studio and write something for one of his upcoming albums,
just mess around. I just don't think we I don't

(59:26):
think we ever found it got it. Maybe we also
just didn't make enough time. I don't know, you know,
it's like.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Go into that patience mind.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
I know, I know, I know. Yeah, well we should
get in the studio anyway. I mean that that would
be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
That was the man.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Yeah, let's do one more.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
I want to talk about Memphis. Let's display Memphis.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
Okay, that's why it's really hard to cut off.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
That's the whole. Yeah, that from start to finish as
a whole message for sure. So it feels almost like
a diary excerpts.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
That's what That's the way it feels to me. Man,
you know, I mean, I don't know you, but you've
been in my life how long? And I can only
imagine like the pressure and the craziness of your career.
I mean, I can only imagine what it's been.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
You know, you started with Conditions, and then you want
to play one more and you play Memphis. And I
don't find that there's much irony to that, because when
I finished those two songs, I said, these have to
be the book ends of the album. And you know,
Memphis is an extremely personal song. But I think it

(01:00:59):
was important to me the way that it sounded like
you said, the way that it felt. There's no moment
for me where I've been ungrateful about how challenging it
can be. This is not like a I'm not saying
this in some sort of braggy type of way. I
have a rare, unique life where I've grown up in

(01:01:20):
this industry from a very young age, and I think
you go through life and you learn things about yourself,
and you go through bad experiences, you go through highs
and lows. And that's why that visual in my mind,
like being in the clouds, you know, and people seeing
you up there that the first thing you hear people

(01:01:44):
say that you can't be crying from up there, you know.
And I'm not necessarily saying that I am where that
song where that song sort of where I started to
find an inspiration for it again. I found myself remembering
when I was first moving out of Memphis, And it's

(01:02:05):
kind of funny now that I'm thinking about it now.
I remember when I got chosen for like Star Search,
which if you're young and you're listening to this right now,
it was the original American idol, you know what I mean,
By the way, like it was the biggest thing on television. Yeah,

(01:02:25):
And I remember when I got chosen to go be
on the show, like the kids from my school that
were my friends, like came and met me at the
airport with signs saying good luck justin you know what
I mean. And I think back to those moments with
such fondness, but also like that ten year old feeling

(01:02:48):
that pressure to be great, and you know, at times,
being an artist who achieves a certain amount of success
can lead to, weirdly enough, like an incredible feeling of isolation.
And I think that that's when you have to you

(01:03:11):
have to take us a second to say who am
I right now and how of these experiences affected me
all up until this moment, Because that's really the best
way to move forward, right in your own sort of
personal constitution, and sometimes I've had lows with it, and
sometimes I've had extreme highs with it. And I think
when you get older and you're able to metabolize that.

(01:03:33):
I couldn't have written that song before now, you know,
because I wasn't able to see how something that I
didn't pay any attention to affected me in so many ways.
Like I said, good and bad, But like I said
in that song, with everything you thought I was, I'm
everything I thought I was. It was everything I thought
it was. And that's really wrapped around these ideas that

(01:03:57):
once you finish a piece of art and you put
it out there, it's going to be everything to somebody
and something else to somebody else, and something else to
the next person. And I guess I just felt like
it was my turn to say this is what it
is to me. And so that's why it's important that
it's the first song on the album. Originally I wasn't

(01:04:17):
gonna call it Memphis, but my best friend, you know,
sitting next to me, he said, you should call this
Memphis because it really reminds me of like you coming
out of Memphis and all of us like being so
proud of you to go out and dare to dream, right,

(01:04:39):
But I don't know. I think it's I think it's
important to important to see every sliver of the whole
picture and be able to put them in their place
for yourself. Yeah, that's what that song is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
That kind of kind of like deeply personal song writing.
Does it feel comfortable?

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
It felt comfortable on this song. All songs, even though
you might just be writing them because you want to
trying to achieve even the sort of entendres of the
concept of the song, or you could be you know,
connecting the dots for the narrative of the song. They're
all going to subconsciously come from a deeply personal place.

(01:05:24):
I think, like I guess, like I said, I think
being able to put them in their place and once
it's done, you know, it's like whoof Yeah, you know,
if they are deeply personal, or if they're a song
like No Angels, where it's like, you know, let me
explore all the ideas of what no Angels means. Or

(01:05:45):
you know what if we put them on the dance floor.
Oh yeah, there's no Angels on the dance floor every
you know what I mean? Like, that's that's a concept
we can all understand right and have fun with. Yeah,
I think whether a song is deeply personal or not,
as an artist, you're always putting your heart on your sleeve,
you know, and and sometimes that can be a very

(01:06:08):
isolating place, a very anxious experience. But the more I've
understood that again, I remember hearing Rick Rubin say this
that people's reaction to a piece of art says everything
about them, good or bad. And I don't know, I
guess that thinking about that concept really frees me up.

(01:06:31):
They're going to be personal for the listener too. I
think that's an amazing thing. That's the connection.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Have you thought about playing this record live yet?

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Yeah, it's been interesting right now because we're going on
tour really soon, so it's been interesting to try to
think about what songs I'm going to play live. I
think once the album's out and it's living in the world,
I think I'll quickly have a feel not just based

(01:07:03):
on what people are responding to, but more so myself,
you know, like how I feel about it being out
in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Yeah, there really is a difference when you release something
versus when it's not, you know, even though it's like
people some people have heard and you've gotten feedback.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Sure, and especially to think about you work on and
off for three or four years on a project. I
think the difference is for me now, before it was
like oh god, you know, which I think a lot
of us go through as artists. Sure, I think the
difference is now for me it's like wow, you know,

(01:07:43):
like what a blessing you know. And I don't know,
I just feel really grateful in this moment. There's so
many We've talked about, so many people, and they've all
conspired to my story, yeah, and to be part of
my journey. And I'm so grateful for all of them,

(01:08:05):
the ones that I know personally and the ones that
I don't even know at all. Yeah, personally that I
think I can really see the value in that at
this point in my life. And I think that's why
this album feels the way that it feels for me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
That's beautiful, man, that's really beautiful. Thank you, I mean,
thank you for the record. Thank you for making the time.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
To speak about the record or putting together It's really beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
And U can wait to see you on the road, man, Yeah,
come see us. Absolutely, We'll make it. Do as Ray
Charles said.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
I'll make it do, What'll Do. Thanks Justin Timberlake for
chopping it up about his new album Everything I Thought
It Was. You can hear it along with our favorite
songs featuring JT on a playlist at broken record podcast
dot com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all

(01:09:00):
of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter
at broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by
Leah Rose, with marketing help from Marri Sandler and Jordan McMillan.
Our engineer is Ben Tolliger. Broken Record is the production
of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others
from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is

(01:09:22):
a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad free
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please remember to share, rate, and review us on your
podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.