Saturday, March 13, 1999
'N Sync with their own vision
Earnest and upbeat, the new boys on the street are proving themselves By KIERAN GRANT -- Toronto Sun
"I apologize if I have to ask you to repeat any questions. There's, like, chaos here."
Justin Timberlake has just summed up life in the eye of a figurative Florida hurricane known as 'N Sync -- teen-pop's singing and dancing boy-band sensation.
The group's youngest crooner at 18, Timberlake's phoning from a recent tour-stop in Providence, R.I.
A pre-show 'N Sync soundcheck explains the background noise, but judging by Timberlake's cheerful composure, this almost qualifies as a break from the group's regimen of screaming fans, performances, more screaming fans and even more chaos.
"That's the word for it, but you don't really think about it too much, though," says Timberlake, who will be joined by Lance Bass, 19, Joey Fatone Jr., 22, JC Chasez, 22, and Chris Kirkpatrick, 27, for a Gardens concert tomorrow night.
Actually, it seems like Timberlake does plenty of thinking. He's a trouper, simultaneously upbeat and earnest in the way that only a former Mickey Mouse Club castmember could be. Still, he's surprisingly sage about stardom.
Mind you, Timberlake and the rest of 'N Sync are already millionaire veterans who see swooning girls in audiences almost every concert night.
"I get kind of scared when I see someone pass out in the audience," he says. "But there are funny instances.
"One time we were in an airport at the gate, and there were 300 fans who'd followed us there from the venue. One girl decided that she was a piece of carry-on and tried to go through the x-ray machine at the security check."
He adds, laughing: "Personally, I would have just ran through, but no, she wanted to go through the x-ray machine.
"We met her, just 'cause we felt bad about the whole situation. It was a very quick, 'Hi. Don't do that again.' "
Goes with the territory, as Timberlake might say.
Meanwhile, 'N Sync have broken new ground since their last visit to Toronto in July.
Back then, they were just graduating from the Backstreet Boys' school of pop world domination, conquering Germany, Belgium and Canada before staging their home country U.S. invasion.
The buildup worked. Not surprisingly, since 'N Sync are handled by Louis Pearlman and Johnny Wright, the Orlando management team that broke Backstreet Boys, and most recently, Britney Spears.
Now, 'N Sync and Spears are the frontline in a teen-pop wave that's made 13-year-old girls the biggest market in the music biz.
"There's this big hype around it," Timberlake says with genuine awe, although he sees a downside.
"It's sad that groups like us get stereotyped into this manufactured money-making scheme, when in reality the five of us guys don't really know that much about the business," he says."We're not trying to say, 'Don't call us a boy-band, blah, blah, blah.' We find it funny that people think of us that way. But we've had to prove ourselves over and over again because of it."
Timberlake says critics are starting to let up.
Certainly, 'N Sync gets the best reviews of the bubblegum set. And unlike, say, the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls, they weren't "manufactured."
"We were a group before we even met Johnny Wright," says Timberlake. "Lou Pearlman didn't put us together. That's just pure nonsense.
"I've seen so many groups who don't do it naturally. And I can't understand how or why.
"The moment we don't," Timberlake asserts, "we'll re-assess our relationship with the music business."