Wow peeps. It has been a long time hasn’t it? Well I am back and better than I have been in a while. I am still on a high from The Forget Tomorrow World Tour. The show is great and I have gabbing with friends about it and comparing our experiences. I have been talking with my close friends about the experience and the show. My sister pointed out that very rarely does a person have a memory attached to an artist or actor that spans over several decades… There are only a few people that come to mind in my life…. (Kevin Conroy RIP, R.L Stine.) But that got me to thinking about what moments stand out in my life… and where Justin may have helped me out without knowing it.

I have realized and said to my sister that it is very hard to explain to people what a person and their work has meant to you in your life. Especially a person that you don’t know personally and have never met. No matter how you explain it… They’ll only understand so much… not for their lack of trying. Some people won’t get it at all… (Like my Dad. Poor guy. He swore I would “grow out of it…” whatever that means.) I am sure my father wasn’t alone in that thought because this love of mine seemed/seems obsessive to other people which has always seemed odd to me… because no one said that about my love of football/Emmitt Smith or Goosebumps etc.

Looking back on it, I probably would have come to NSYNC at some point… but it makes me laugh to tell people how it happened. My mother heavily regulated what I watched, listened to and read. As a result, I was really only allowed to watch Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network and sometimes some shows on those networks were off limits. She even had to limit my reading of some Goosebumps books because I stopped sleeping throughout the night. Disney, for their part, started running the “I Want You Back Video” in during commercials… between my shows and I was intrigued but had no real information about who they were. This wasn’t a time where you could rewind tv, or have a DVR… There was no internet… So I just had to wait for it to play again. And then July 18, 1998 came along. And I have never looked back.

We only had one tv in the living room and my mother came in and saw me watching it… but I got to tell her that it was Disney so I wasn’t breaking any rules. She watched it for a bit and then gave her approval which for me was huge. It was the first music I picked for myself. In that moment, I became a fan and never looked back. There was something about watching their stage presence and interacting with fans that got me. They seemed to really enjoy what they were doing and that is always fun to watch.

I don’t think that I understood at the time that people didn’t take boybands or pop music seriously. I had a hard time adjusting to life in middle school but I had NSYNC’s second (No Strings Attached) album to keep me company. I was a socially awkward kid that had a hard time fitting in. It was even harder to be a Black girl who liked NSYNC… I think many people just saw it as an annoying hobby/obsession of mine. No one really took NSYNC or me seriously. There weren’t a lot of people who lived in my neighborhood who got the appeal. I think I thought talking about their shows and videos would break the ice for me… and that was not the case. School is all about appearances…it only ostracized me but that didn’t bother me. I remember one of the gifts I got for my 12th birthday was a boombox and a portable CD player… so whenever I could check out… and do my own concerts I did. The portable CD player was such a big deal because I wasn’t forced to make conversation with mean kids on the bus anymore… It was how I dealt with a lot. I don’t think my parents understood how much bullying I was dealing with from other kids… (No one wanted to be different and sadly… I was )and sometimes teachers… but NSYNC was always there for me. (When you make that statement to people… they nod… sometimes placatingly to show they get it… but really how can they?

No Strings Attached became a fun time because more and more people started talking about NSYNC…. and how talented they were… (and I felt somewhat vindicated) People were asking me about them… and giving me their thoughts on all the music videos coming out at the time. I did manage to make a few friends that started with talking me about my guys. So there they are again making life a bit easier. My parents were never going to pay for HBO… but a friend recorded the concert special on a VHS tape for me to watch. I watched it OVER AND OVER again… I think I kept it for a month before she had to ask for it back. It really got me through the end of middle school which at the time was in the middle of nowhere with not a lot going on. My siblings have forgiven me for making them learn the dance moves on this tour… I think.

My family moved a bit when I was younger and so NSYNC was a soothing balm for me in that regard too. Over time, I think I relied heavily on them to help reduce my anxiety about new situations in my life such as meeting new people… getting used to new schools and new locations. And after all this time, it still works.

In 2001, Celebrity was released, and I listened to it on repeat… I watched the Road to Celebrity and didn’t miss a video countdown with them on it. They came out right when I was at a turning point in my life… Starting high school was rough. I had moved again and NSYNC remained the constant in my life. With singles like “Gone” and “Girlfriend”, it roped in more people who maybe hadn’t given them a chance prior to that. When people asked what I was listening to, I didn’t get that weird stare anymore when I said NSYNC. I couldn’t wait to play that album for anyone who would listen. My mother was the one that said… “They are going to go their separate ways for a bit. I can see it.” I think that jarred me. Because NSYNC has been my security blanket for a long time… They can’t take a break. Don’t they know I need them? And I still needed to make money to see them live. Shouldn’t they wait for me to do that? I don’t think I have ever wanted my mom to be wrong more in my life. But as moms go… she rarely is.

In the end, NSYNC announced they were going on hiatus in Spring of 2002… and I was sad. Like more sad than I could have imagined. I have always wanted to see them in concert… and I had not been able to do so. I figured there would be no new music to get me through to graduation. This was the first time where I felt as though a huge phase or chapter in my life was over… and kind of abruptly. I was glad to see that all the guys were going forward in different directions. I did want them to rest and be happy no matter how much I missed them. But I knew that my security blanket that I relied so heavily on was gone.

I remember when someone mentioned to me in passing that they had heard a rumor… and I always take rumors with a grain of salt. But I saw it on MTV. We got to see Justin in the studio preparing his solo debut. I was elated to hear that Justin was planning and working on a solo album. I may have watched that footage a few times before the album release. There was something about watching everyone come together and create… Watching people do what they love to do spoke to me. It is clear when watching it that this was a passion for them… all of them. Ideas were thrown around, tweaks were made… and it didn’t seem that anyone was uncomfortable with throwing ideas into the pot. The process was so interesting to me. I think I have only seen that look one other time before.

The waiting killed me. Maybe watching the launch made it worse. (But apparently it was recorded in the 6 months since the NSYNC hiatus.)Seeing who he was working with made the anticipation worse. The majority of the album was produced by the Neptunes (credited as “Williams and Hugo”) and Timbaland, and features guest appearances by Janet Jackson, Clipse, and Bubba Sparxxx.)  I itched to know what the finished product sounded like. I wanted to know what song each person worked on sounded like… did it sound like I expected…? Was it different? But on some level, I was worried. I swore people were not going to get it… I knew I would love it no matter what. NSYNC and Justin had my trust no matter what. But even as young as I was, I knew there were going to be people that didn’t give it a chance solely because he was in a boyband… and I wondered how that would affect the story around the album. (I stand behind this fact 20 years later…) And on some level, I did not want to have to explain to people his album and why it was good. Or have to tell people why they should listen to it. I did that a lot for NSYNC and it was annoying.

Needless to say, the album was great. And while there were people dragging their feet because he was in NSYNC, the majority of people I knew were giving it a try and grooving to it. There were critics who hated it… but isn’t that their job? To hate everything? Sure. So on that note, Who cares? There wasn’t a place I was in 2002/2003, where someone wasn’t breaking into song and singing one of his singles to me. That made me laugh… but I was glad… I was eager to have people to share my love of Justin with. Justified was a commercial success, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawning two top-five singles. There he was for me again… getting me through high school now. It was such an easy listen… and it gave me the courage to continue pushing forward as well as branch out a bit more with my own interests. Writing more and sharing it with other people. I felt if he was brave enough to do it then so was I. I did get a lot of positive feedback and I always think about how Justin was at the bottom of that…

 The album sold 3 million copies. Justin was headlining arenas around the world, became the face of a McDonald’s campaign, and landed his first double-duty hosting and performing gig on Saturday Night Live. None of that shocked me, but it seemed that people were just now realizing how talented he was. He deserved it… I relied heavily on that album… to keep anxiety at bay… and get my studying done. A new/old security blanket. It became part of my heavy rotation right away. Before long, graduation came along and my high school career was over. Class of 2005.

Then with no work or class to go to… I jumped into the workforce… It wasn’t fun or pretty and the different dynamic was interesting for me to navigate. I thought I was going to bring in a bunch of money to use on whatever ideas I could come up with in my 18-20 year old mind. But I had no such luck. Sadly. That means I missed the Justified/Stripped Tour. Two artists I would have loved to see. I just didn’t have it. It made so much sense to me why they went on tour together. Ugh… This is becoming a trend… but as an adult I really felt some type of way about that.

The job I had was high turnover… and that made it difficult on me to relate to colleagues. So I still relied on NSYNC and Justified. I listened to them and him on the way to and home for work. It fortified my nerves for work. When people that I worked with started finding out that I was a huge NSYNC fan, and Justin fan.. They pointed out that had seen him or couldn’t wait to see him in Alpha Dog. (They wanted more music but they wanted to see him by any means. I got the feeling.) It seemed as though people couldn’t believe that a person would like to try their hand at acting or that he had been doing it for years. Again, I was torn between being happy that people were giving him a chance but also kind of confused as to why some people were so hellbent on putting him in a box of just being a musician. (Insert Eyeroll.) But as I got older… I realized that is how people work.

By 2006/2007, I had my head down working in a call center. And I was trying to figure out if working or going to college was the best thing for me. All of my friends had been accepted into their colleges out of the city or state and they were on their own journeys. I was in my “home” town devoid of friends from high school who I was comfortable with and I needed to branch out again and meet new people. I was not looking forward to it. I was not particularly good at meet new people and making friends. My parents also divorced so life as I knew it was different. Change was my nemesis. My family life was looking different more and more each day. Maybe that is what made me bold enough to talk to others. But I didn’t have to worry about topics since Justin decided to bring SexyBack with a new album. He is always right on time. I remember having car trouble and asking a friend to drive me up to Target to get the album that first week. Fun Times. It gave me something to mention when I was singing it or asked what I was listening to at my desk… and again… it gained me new friends. It also helped me ignore most of the divorce process with my family… and gave me something else to focus on.

Considered by many as peak JT, FS/LS solidified him as a superstar in his own right. But he had been a superstar to me for years already. Of course, I loved it… I felt it was a great mix of new sounds coming together perfectly to make a song and then an album. It was another in the collection of albums that went into heavy rotation. It made me laugh because one of the singles… “My Love” had been what I asked for a few years back when Justified came out. Someone had asked me at work at the lunch table… if I could have Justin collaborate with someone who would I want it to be… and my first response was T.I. I remember saying… It think they would sound great together… And you can’t see me… but I am patting myself on the back because I was right. The second part of that answer was Jay-Z and just know that I am making a smug face right now.

It was a time to be alive… but of course when he did the FutureSex/LoveShow, he came to Atlanta… and I did not get a chance to see him. I had to work. The guy I liked had a friend with an extra ticket though. So he got to experience it and I did not. I felt like the joke was on me… I got to listen to how it was a great show… (I mean… I knew this… I am not a fan for no reason.) But I did get a chance to see the show when I got the DVD… And again… your boy did not miss. But I just knew this was something to see live. Ugh…. All things happen for a reason.

And then… life went on… I got another job and then got annoyed with that before deciding whether or not I should go back to school. My friends had all graduated and had degrees…. and I was wondering how I could make it work… in that time Justin was acting his ass off… (The Social Network, Bad Teacher, Friends with Benefits, In Time, and Trouble with the Curve, if you haven’t seen them definitely check them out.) I loved it… and so did everyone else. I had plenty of friends that knew that I would go with them to see movies because… He was in it. It doesn’t take much to sell me on a movie. It took much less since he was in it lol… But that was because I knew he wouldn’t disappoint me. There was a lot of chatter about how talented he was… and some people pointing out how unfair it was… But I just laughed. We had been told that years ago…

In 2012/2013, I had mustered up the courage and the funds to return to school. I enrolled in college with a bunch of people about 7-10 years younger than me… But I sucked it up and worked through it. After 6 years, Justin came out the gate with a monster double album. The 20/20 experience. This has to be by far my favorite album of his. But more than the sound of the album, which I stand by is great… I think I have tied that album to a difficult time in my life… and it was really the thing that got me through. In all honesty, I was stuck… I had just been ousted from my job. And the relationship I was in… really my very first one… ended badly. And my parent’s divorce was finalized, my dad even remarried. So I was really in a bad way. I remember just going through the motions. I was going to class and coming home… and really just going to bed. I was feeling alone… break ups do that to people. But I remember a friend of mine texting me a link to an interview where Justin was talking about new music. Thank God… I was an Apple product girlie. I got a message shortly afterwards that said for a week before the album release that we could listen to the album in its entirety. (Seemed like an odd marketing strategy…but I was all for it.) It was the first time in a while that I was excited for something. It was the first time in a while that I felt something other than sadness.

One of the things that I have always enjoyed about being a fan of his is the growth that we hear on each album… They sound like him but also grown and mature.. which is not something I can say I have gotten from my other faves. I remember sitting in bed and letting the preview play from start to finish on what I now know is part 1. It was exactly him and completely different at the same time. I made sure to preorder it as quickly as possible. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 968,000 copies – the biggest sales week of the year, becoming Timberlake’s second number one album on the chart and best-selling debut week of his solo career. The 20/20 Experience became the best-selling album of 2013 in the US, making it the Billboard Year-End number-one album. (And I won’t mention all the songs he wrote and produced for other artists…Just know he is very good at it.) I just knew this was a signal that I needed to lower my head and give the college go a better try… I was already a non-traditional student, but I needed to actively participate in life.

By the time Part 2 came along in September 2013… And while I had been moving forward in my life schoolwise… I was still a bit stunted socially. I was still reeling from my break up and wanting to give up on dating altogether. The first single off part 2 was Take Back the Night. And for the life of me, no matter how many times I listened to it… I knew the lyrics were about meeting and dancing with someone at the club… and really that was enough but I kept hearing… How long are you just going to sit around sad…? What you need to do is get out and Take Back the Night…. And so that is exactly what I did. So that song will always have a soft spot for me. Especially most of my closest friends were out of state and they didn’t get how the break up affected me. I also started talking to my real father… and I used that album and single as a crutch to give it a try.

But I think my fave song off the part 2 was definitely Drink You Away… it was as if someone voiced exactly what I was going through at the time of the breakup… I would heavily go through this double album…(TKO, Amnesia, Only When I Walk Away…) There were a range of emotions to have… But it was just what I needed to get through my hectic college schedule. I was working a full time almost overnight job, taking classes full time and working part time at the college.Before I knew it… I was finishing classes and another chapter of my life was completed. And JT was there for me in a tough time yet again.

Since I was able to graduate and get a job, I was prepared for the Legends of Summer Tour. There were many whispers online beforehand. Luckily for me, my tax return hit at the same time the tickets went on sale. I’ll never forget the story…. I got in the car on the way to the store nearby… and my friend called me as I left the complex. She was telling me that the tickets were on sale and she was not near a computer…. I doubled back so quick… We managed to get two tickets to a show in Baltimore… to see him and Jay Z a few months later. We definitely had to plan because we were no where near Baltimore… And neither one of our families wanted us to go to Baltimore… They felt it was too far away. But I was NOT going to be talked out of my first time seeing Justin for any reason by anyone. It was a sad time for the guy I was dating at the time… He kept telling me traveling to see a concert was a bit much. (This would be the same person who got to go to the FutureSex Loveshow…) But whatever. There were only 14 shows to choose from and there was no way I was going to miss it. LOL.

I made sure to take a few days off from work. The whole weekend was hyped up for me. My friend and I ended up flying into BWI and renting a car to stay in Virginia with her family. If I remember correctly, the family was 90 minutes away from the arena. And when you are traveling in your twenties… staying with family was helpful. There was a great mix of people and I think that poor girl who sat next to us on the floor was astonished that I knew every word to all the songs. She kept staring at me in disbelief during each song. Maybe she thought I was there for one person over the other… I am sure she learned something new that day.

I will never forget this show as it was my first time seeing him ever and it was such a great show… and covered my favorite album. At this point this was 11 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. The lights… the song selection and the collaboration. I wish I was able to get more footage but my camera at the time was trash… and there were men that got floor seats that I spent time having to look around. When you are only 5’4″, it be like that. But I want all my concert experiences to be like that. Looking back on it… This is one my faves of his and I really got a double concert out of the deal. My friend and I made a weekend trip of it… I got to see all of the museums in DC. It remains the top thing that I did… around that time.

5 years passed and I understood that life happens… Justin was in his voice acting bag… Trolls was a huge hit with my niece… and Can’t Stop This Feeling was played on repeat at my brother’s house much to his chagrin. It was JT’s first No.1 single in almost a decade, and earned him a GRAMMY for Best Song Written For Visual Media and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. For me, I had graduated college and started a job that was in my field… I was finally able to put my degree to use. Life has slowed down a bit for me… And when Man of the Woods came out… It was nice to have another Soundtrack for this different and more calm aspect of my life. There were many friends who didn’t get it… and for me… I have always listened to all kinds of music from Tracey Chapman, to Garth Brooks to DMX. So it made sense to me. He was back with Timbaland and the Neptunes. The result is a record where Timberlake mixes his brand of funky pop while diving into the country and Americana sounds of his childhood. Midnight Summer Jam and Sauce have to be my favorite things from that album.

Man Of The Woods marked his fourth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200… and highlighted his staying power. I had to listen to may complaints about it though… Mostly from people that had a preconceived idea about what they wanted it to sound like. When you put an artist in a box and don’t allow them to explore, grow and change… you’re always disappointed. I wasn’t. Like Jay-Z once said… “If you like my old shit, buy my old albums.”

It has been 5 more years, I have moved out of my “home” state… Getting out again after lockdown. Lockdown was rough for me… since it was just me and mom… There were no parks or outdoor spaces. So it was just me for 3 years trying not to die or boredom and figure out how to interact with others virtually. I had to cut some people off and had to branch out and start over… Not to mention having to have surgery and wait 8 weeks to recover. But it is what it is… Justin it looks like has worked with many artists…. like SZA (“The Other Side”), Calvin Harris (“Stay with Me”), and Jack Harlow (“Parent Trap”) and not to mention Jungkook (“3D”).

I think I heard the rumors of an NSYNC reunion on Twitter and the preteen/teenager in me was screaming to be released. But I always take rumors with a grain of salt… Trolls Band Together, the latest installment of the franchise includes an *NSYNC song. “Better Place” is their first song together in 20 years. And I loved every second of it… Here they are again… popping out for new chapters in my life… I shouldn’t be shocked at this late stage of the game. But they were all over the place for a while in 2023… I was salty about not seeing them at the Willtern…. I would have paid my sister to see that LOL.

There had been rumors of JT 6… and then it was announced. Selfish was the lead single from the album… my friends and I could not get enough of it… But I think he buried the lead on purpose. There are a lot of heavy hitters on this album. Not to mention the NSYNC song Paradise… JT6 aka Everything I Thought It Was dropped in March. I have been bumping it since then. Poor Mom. This album was everything I expected to hear from him… and also reminiscent of everything I loved of his past albums all at the same time. He did say there were upwards of 80/90 songs to choose from… I will say… I am hoping for all the songs to be released. Maybe even another double album. I know I am partial to it but one can hope. I am in a new chapter of life… having had surgery and taking a new city by storm and your boy is back to give me a soundtrack to do it. It can’t be a coincidence this late in the game.

My top 5 is always rotating… but as for now I think they are as follows:

1. Sanctified (Hopefully… this will be his next single.)
2. What Lovers Do (I would love a video for this.)
3. Flame
4. Liar
5. Drown (Something about how he describes break ups always speaks to me.)

This time when he announced a tour… I WAS ALL OVER IT. I flew down to my sister’s in Tampa… and made sure I would at least see him a second time. And I will never forget it. I had such a great time. But if you want to know more about that see my post about it.

As I waited for the concert… and I may have gotten tickets to more than one show… as I need to make up for all the times I haven’t seen him and them in concert… but as I waited for my time and took in all the videos of other people in concerts… I got to watch his tiny desk performance. This was yet ANOTHER instance where people got to see him showcase his talents… and people kept calling and talking to me about how “Can you believe he can sing and can play the guitar?” Yes since he has been doing it for a while now… If you haven’t seen it… Watch it here.

In the end, when people ask me how I feel about JT and NSYNC… This is what comes to mind. When I was going through things… sometimes silently… They were there… Before anyone else… Justin Timberlake was there. So if this man, these men, have no fans then I am dead. Thanks for taking a trip with me down memory lane. That is all for now.