Fans were surprised and disappointed when *NSYNC went on hiatus in 2002. However, they hoped that the boy band would get back together after Justin Timberlake released his solo album and finished his Justified Tour. Joey Fatone recently revealed that Timeberlake’s departure came as a surprise to the band as well.
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After releasing “Better Place,” their first new song in 22 years, it looks like *NSYNC is ready to get the band back together. In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Fatone reflected on Timberlake’s departure as well as the band’s subsequent split.
Fatone said the band’s eventual split didn’t shock him. Instead, Timberlake’s failure to return to the fold took him by surprise. “I was more blindsided as far as [Timberlake] coming out with music and not knowing that he was going to go and do an actual album/tour thing,” he recalled.
*NSYNC released their last album, Celebrity in 2001. Then, in the fall of 2002, they went on what Fatone believed would be a temporary hiatus. Timberlake put the band on hold so he could launch his solo career with Justified in 2002. Soon, the former boy band member became a solo hitmaker and seemingly never looked back.
During the interview, Fatone reflected on his thought process at the time. “It was more of, ‘Hey, I’m going to do some music, and then we’ll get back together.’ That’s what it was,” he said. “We thought he was just going to go out and just come back after the tour. I was like, ‘OK.’ But then when he went on tour and then things started going.”
Today, he doesn’t blame Timberlake for the way things went down. “It wasn’t him — it was the record company. If it was him, then I’d understand it. When you’re younger, you think it’s that person. But then you look at the whole bigger scheme of things, and you go, ‘Oh, that’s why I wasn’t there for that.’ That’s the business.”
If there were any hard feelings between Timberlake, Fatone, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, and Chris Kirkpatrick, it seems that they are water under the bridge. As their latest release would suggest, the members of *NSYNC are in a better place.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for MTV
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