Interviewee: Justin Timberlake
Interviewer: Barbara Walters
Date: November 4, 2002

Even though he has gone stag from ‘N Sync, Justin Timberlake has proved to be a lasting vestige of the teen pop movement he helped explode in the late ’90s to 2000s. Coincidentally, he and some of its members were alumni of the defunct television show Mickey Mouse Club. This lineup includes ex-girlfriend Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and JC Chasez.

With Chasez, Justin banded with Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass to form ‘N Sync in 1995. Through RCA/BMG, the quintet released an eponymous album in Europe in 1996 and the US in 1998. It garnered instantaneous audience recall with ditties like “I Want You Back” and “Tearin’ Up My Heart.” Far record-breaking was their next album though, No Strings Attached. Released in 2000, the album sold a million copies the first day it was out, sustained by hit singles “Bye Bye Bye” and “This I Promise You.”

Celebrity, the next album, caps the boy band’s existence as a group, as Justin Timberlake had contemplated being a soloist. In November 2002, he released his first solo effort, Justified, which contains the smashes “Like I Love You” and “Cry Me A River.”

To promote “Rock Your Body”, Timberlake bared Janet Jackson’s right breast in front of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show audience on January 2004. In his words, the incident was an inadvertent “wardrobe malfunction”, now an infamous phrase. A remorseful Timberlake appears at the Grammys the next month to collect two honors nonetheless.

Nearly four years in the gestation since Justified, Timberlake released his sophomore effort, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which turns to Prince, rather than Michael Jackson, for inspiration. “My Love” and the Grammy Award-winning first single, “SexyBack”, bowed at #1 at the US charts in no time.

Not content as pop heartthrob, Justin Timberlake has sporadically flexed his acting muscle, with Edison Force, Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, and Southland Tales and picked romantic conquests along the way like Jessica Biel, Cameron Diaz and Alyssa Milano.