*NSYNC worked because they knew they each “sucked at singing certain things”
The recently re-united boy band stopped by the Hot Ones studio for a trip down memory lane
Aux News NSYNC
When you’ve got all five members of *NSYNC in your studio for one of their first interviews in literal decades (sorry for the reminder), you’ve got to give the people what they want. And what the people clearly want is to watch the guys eat hot wings and talk about their glory days—not their recent contribution to the Trolls Band Together soundtrack, which chicken and question purveyor Sean Evans barely even brings up at all.
Instead, the legendary boy band—that’s Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, and Joey Fatone—used their visit to the Hot Ones table to reflect on some of the highs (the fashion, among other things) and lows (also, notably, the fashion) of their career.
In addition to sharing some goofy tour moments and revealing their collective “Mount Rushmore” of *NSYNC songs (“Tearin’ Up My Heart,” “Bye Bye Bye,” “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and “I Thought She Knew”), the band took a moment to reflect on what made them so successful from a sonic perspective.
“I think the crazy part about it is you have a lot of these bands that were put together, even the really good bands [like] One Direction, but you have five guys that are amazing singers and great soloists, so when they come out and do songs you fight over ‘where is this gonna be,’” said Kirkpatrick.
That, apparently, was never the case for *NSYNC. “We kind of knew we sucked at singing certain things,” he continued. “So we just fell into our spots and we knew our place, you know? Like, I know I’d be the high stuff, [Justin and JC] would do the leads, Joey would be in the middle, and Lance would be on the bass. It was a lot easier since we started with a sound rather than five amazing vocalists.”
Don’t worry, though—the years certainly don’t seem to have diminished the guys’ ability to take a joke. “I mean not to say we’re not [amazing vocalists], but I just did,” Kirkpatrick concluded. Even if that was the case, it certainly hasn’t stopped them yet.
13 Comments
What is the most appropriate way to make a Lance Bass, and sucking joke?
By not making it.
Let’s ask his brother, Billy!
Is it 2000?
#JusticeForJC
It’s one of life’s many cruel strokes that Joey Fatone’s name can be parsed into “Joey Fat One.”Anyway, I prefer the musical stylings of the Party Posse, myself.
I’m a B12 boy.
It’s refreshing getting to see them be real adults—joke, curse, be goofy, interrupt each other. I was their target demographic at the height of *NSYNC’s fame and even as a teen I could tell they were censoring themselves for PR purposes.
“*NSYNC worked because they knew they sucked at singing c̶e̶r̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶”
I’ll never understand why celebs are willing to do this show, it’s flat out painful. I saw a snippet of the show that focused in on Timberlake, and he truly looked miserable. Is this show really that important for their promotion efforts?
12,800,000 people subscribe to that channel, that’s why. It’s a publicist’s dream.
Yes, it’s a publicist’s dream, but why do the celebs go along with it? For some of them, it’s literal torture. There are so many other, easier places for promoting your work. Why do people like Timberlake or Jennifer Lawrence, both of whom in excerpts look genuinely pained and miserable, agree to do the show? Are they truly surprised by what happens?
Evans is a great interviewer, so the episodes are always really interesting and engaging. There are also more than a few celebs who sail through all or most of the wings – Lorde in particular looked bored during her episode and I think Florence Pugh went to an event right after. Me personally? This would be torture no matter what viral video my PR team got out of it as even the most mild spice bothers me. They’d have to cart me out in a body bag if I made it to the end!