Justin Timberlake's solo career has been a decades-long quest to transcend his boy band beginnings in N*SYNC. On Wednesday night in Los Angeles, he returned to them.
During a small free performance at the Wiltern to promote his new solo album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” Timberlake fully embraced 2000s nostalgia and brought out his entire old band: Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick. – To perform several of his hits, starting with “Gone” and going through “It's Gonna Be Me”, “Girlfriend” and “Bye Bye Bye”.
Timberlake, 43, had not performed with the full group since his appearance at the 2013 VMAs. In 2019, N*SYNC, minus Timberlake, joined Ariana Grande on stage at Coachella.
Timberlake thanked the vintage goodwill and posted a photo of five empty stools on the Wiltern stage after the show. His new solo single “Paradise” is more or less an N*SYNC reunion song, featuring all of his former bandmates, and the quintet performed it Wednesday night. (They reunited in the studio last year for the single “Better Place” from the animated film “Trolls: Band Together.”)
Timberlake hasn't released a new album since 2018's rootsy “Man of the Woods,” which met with lukewarm reception.
The de facto meeting comes as Timberlake looks to shake off some recent criticism. He came under public scrutiny after her ex Britney Spears wrote in her recent memoir that Timblerlake pressured her to have an abortion at the height of her teen pop fame. After several documentaries re-examined how pop culture treated women during the 1990s and 2000s, some criticized Timberlake again for his handling of the infamous incident with Janet Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl.
There may be more collaborations with N*SYNC to come: Timberlake told Kelly Clarkson in a recent TV interview: “There may be something in the future. …He's a little crazy, there's so many things that just pick up right where they left off chemistry-wise.”
Timberlake kicks off his solo tour on April 29 in Vancouver.
