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| 4/4/04 |
Biographer says Justin has
had a most interesting life "...It's exactly what I'm finding with Justin Timberlake who was performing when he was about eight years old and winning talent contests." The biography on Britney Spears' former boyfriend is due to be published in July. This time, (Celebrity biographer Sean Smith) got to travel to the more glamorous Tennessee for his research. "I've been over to the States several times to find out about Justin," says the 43-year-old. "I'm astonished by how much he has packed into his life and he's only 23 now. "I thought I would be struggling to write 80,000 words but that hasn't been the case. "He's had a most interesting life. He was brought up in Bible-belt Tennessee, which I knew nothing about." Once again, Sean spoke to people on the parameters of Justin's life rather than immediate family or his famous ex. "Religion plays a very big part in his life. Pop stars are usually associated with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll but here is a guy who was brought up in God's country..."
Rising Star: Is JC the new JT? What should we expect from your new album, Schizophrenic? A barrage of sound. Everything - rock, R&B, up-tempo tracks, ballads. It's all about me going with the vibe. Was it scary leaving the security of *NSYNC, one of the biggest bands in the world, to start out on your own? More exciting. I don't think there's any security in this business. And I didn't rush into it. I took a year off to write it. You've been described as the new Prince. How does that make you feel? There are worse things to be called! He's definitely one of my heroes. There must be some music you hate? Every genre has a bunch of crap, but if you get to the good stuff it's worth it. Do you ever feel embarrassed about being in the Mickey Mouse Club? Absolutely not. I ended up going to five proms because everyone wanted to be my date and I travelled the world. Would I trade in that time? No way. Were you mad that your Superbowl performance was cancelled because of the Janet Jackson breast incident with Justin Timberlake? I think the organisers reacted a bit prudishly. Justin was cool. He called me up and was like, 'Yo, man, I never thought anything I did on stage would reflect on you.' He didn't have to. Some Girls takes up the girl on girl gauntlet thrown down by Britney and Madonna. What's been the response? [Laughs] People dig that song, man. It's about observing girls flirting with girls to get guys' attention, not sex. As opposed to All Day Long I Think About Sex which is about sex? Erm, yeah. My mom had a laugh about that. She said, 'I love your music. I just don't always agree with what you say.' That made me crack up. But it's all fun. Schizophrenic is released on 12 April.
Kiss Chasez Former *NSYNC member and now Basement Jaxx guest vocalist, JC Chasez has a few years of snogging under his belt. So we dragged him behind the bike shed to ponder the delights of kissing... TOTP: Do you remember who your first kiss was with and when it
was? TOTP: What's the worst snog you've ever had? TOTP: Have you ever opened your eyes to see the other person staring
back at you? TOTP: On a first date do you go for tongues or just a little peck?
TOTP: Do you like to snog in public? TOTP: What's the longest kiss you've ever had? TOTP: Do you have any tips for the perfect kiss? TOTP: Any ideas how to avoid the tooth clashing thing? TOTP: Imagine you're off to meet a date but you've had a few cloves
of garlic at lunch - what do you do? TOTP: Not even on the back of your hand? TOTP: How do you feel about the idea that fans might have practised
how they're going to snog on posters of you? TOTP: What's the worst 'getting caught' experience you've ever
had? TOTP: Have you heard any silly urban myths about kissing? TOTP: Have you ever snogged a fan? TOTP: Have you ever had a fan try and grab you and force a snog
on you? TOTP: Picture the scene; you've just drunk a can of fizzy pop and
you're about to lunge in for a snog with your girlf when you realise
you're about to burp - what do you do?
Popworld: JC The first star of the day is already in the Popworld Green Room having a cup of coffee when we arrive. It's JC Chasez - he of *Nsync fame - and looks very at home as he wonders round chatting happily to everyone. After a while he's taken into the studio to film his interview with Simon and Miquita. Once that's finished he remains on set and his four female dancers come in so they can perform his single "Some girls (Dance with women)". The appearance of the ladies in their very skimpy costumes has stopped every man in their tracks. JC, unfortunately, has lots of clothes on so there's not much of a treat for the ladies. But once they get going with the performance he shows his mean little mover so that more than makes up for lack of JC skin. He's also singing live and it sounds so perfect you'd swear it was the record. In between takes JC jokes around with the girls and even comes up with some new lyrics to his song. Instead of singing, "Some girls dance with women" he prefers "Some girls eat fried chicken". Although he's dancing around a lot of the boy doesn't break into a sweat - must be all that boy band training. It's a very relaxed atmosphere around the JC camp. All his team chat with each other and JC sips on his tea and just mucks about. He also swears quite a lot, the mucky boy! Once JC has finished he hotfoots it outside to chat with fans and pose for pictures. What a lovely man.
CD:UK adores JC We adore JC Chasez, here at CD:UK, and we adore him because he's quite fabulously barking. He's got a gob on him like both the Gallagher brothers in a "speak your mind" group therapy session; he's got a voice on him like Prince getting jiggy with Charlotte Church; and... well he's got very lovely hair. He's also recorded the pop album of the year, largely because it sounds so completely unlike anything else released this year, in much the same way you'd really appreciate a glass of delicious Ribena if you'd had nothing but a sickly person's sticky nose-juice to drink all year. So hurrah for Mr Chasez, and prepare to do the all-hail thing when he storms the CD:UK stage next Saturday. A true hero in the making.
Boys will be boy bands
"You'll never see trading cards and cute boys in matchy-matchy outfits doing fancy choreography again," says Zena Burns, music editor for Teen People. "It's morphed into boys who play their own instruments in bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan." But if the boy band is extinct, somebody forgot to tell the boys. "Penny & Me," the first single from a forthcoming CD by '90s sibling sensations Hanson, debuted in the number-two position yesterday on the Billboard Hot 100. On Tuesday, former New Kids on the Block singer Jordan Knight released a set of NKOTB material, remixes of '80s hits such as "Step by Step" and "Cover Girl." And another New Kids alum, heartthrob Joey McIntyre, is set to release his album 8:09 on April 27. The management of Menudo, the group that launched Ricky Martin, recently announced that it would audition 10- to 14-year-olds in New York this summer for a revival of the Latino boy band with the revolving-door policy. When a member got too tall, or his voice changed, or he turned 16 - whichever came first - he was summarily replaced. After a four-year layoff and endless litigation, the Backstreet Boys are back in the studio. And despite the solo careers of JC Chasez, who plays the Trocadero on May 13, and Justin Timberlake - and occasional film roles by Joey Fatone and space boy Lance Bass' work on Hollywood Squares - the 'N Sync guys say they'll begin writing songs for a new CD this summer. The hurdle all these boyz-to-men face is that it's exceedingly difficult for pop performers who had teen appeal to reconnect with their audiences. "The typical Backstreet Boys fan was 12 years old in 2000. Now they're 16," notes Tom Vickers, a music consultant and former Capitol and Mercury Records executive. "Are they going to have the same reaction? 'Oh, Brian [Littrell] is so cute!' No. Now they're into the Strokes or the White Stripes." The hope, of course, is that maturing fans will see that their old faves have matured, too. The Hansons will release their new disc, Underneath, April 20 on their own 3CG Records. "We played an acoustic show a few days ago, getting ready for the full tour this summer," says lead singer and pretty middle brother, Taylor, now 21, married, and the father of a 16-month-old son. "It's been four years since our last album and seven since our first one, and the fans are different than they were. ... They're in college and getting on with their lives. But they're still singing along and waving their hands." The Henry Ford of boy bands is Lou Pearlman, a former air charter owner and cousin of Art Garfunkel. A remarkable fleet of groups - Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, LFO, Take 5, C Note, O-Town, Natural and others - have rolled off his Orlando, Fla., assembly line. The formula is rudimentary, Pearlman says: "You need someone with dark hair, someone with light hair, someone with medium hair. You need at least three strong lead singers. And they have to be young and clean-cut, parent-friendly." On top of that, Burns adds, "you have the really cute one, the one who's not so cute, the shy one, and the goofy one." If the makeup of these bands is predictable, so is their shelf-life. "It's a five-year run, on average," Pearlman says. "The bands get to the point where they have a lot of money and they become more independent. Or else there's a falling out and someone wants to go solo." "There's always one guy who looks really good and sings most of the leads, and two to three guys who can do the dance steps and sing on key," Vickers says. "That builds resentments." It's the scenario Eminem raps about in the new D12 single "My Band," and some say it's what spelled the end for the hip-hop boy band B2K. Schisms formed between J-Boog, Lil Fizz, Raz-B, and primary singer Omarion just as the film You Got Served came out in January. All appeared in it, but, as usual, Omarion was top-billed. J-Boog, Lil Fizz and Raz-B accused manager Chris Stokes of financial misdealings, and Omarion announced he was history. He's working on a solo album and has a role in the film Fat Albert; the others say they'll soldier on as B2K. For groups that hit big, the adulation was enormous. But when it ended, some boy-band veterans discovered they were had. "The management contracts are onerous," says Paul Petersen, a child star on the '50s and '60s sitcom The Donna Reed Show, who founded A Minor Consideration, an advocacy group for young performers. "Seldom are they taken for court approval, and the artist has no right to audit the books. Child labor laws are ignored, so there is no tutor accompanying these children and they're working 20-hour days." For bands in particular, "being on the road, whether it's in America or in Indonesia, is hellish," Petersen says. "Everything is charged off to the artist - studio time, promotion, travel, the works - and they walk away with nothing. The cost to the child in terms of emotional and psychological damage cannot be calculated." Merrily Goodell, the wife of a Minnesota veterinarian, had two sons, Ryan and Clay, in Take 5, a Pearlman group. Though big in Asia and Europe, the band fizzled in the States and broke up in 2001 after four years. Goodell came away from the experience disgusted. Before her boys joined, she says, "the picture that was painted was they would have these wonderful tutors. It would be like getting a top private-school education, and it was clean-cut people they would be around. That wasn't the case." Both children emerged "severely depressed," Goodell says. Clay "had an eighth-grade education and he was 17. We put more than $200,000 into this, and the boys didn't make any money," she says, though Pearlman claims he was the loser in the deal.
But even if they got ripped off, most former band members look back on their time with a degree of gratitude. "The guy who created Menudo, Edgardo Diaz, promised us a lot of things that didn't happen," says Roy Rosello, who was in the Ricky Martin edition of Menudo in the group's mid-'80s heyday. "All the money we were supposed to make we didn't get, but the experience was worth it." "The business side was cutthroat, but I got to travel the world," Ryan Goodell says. "I loved going on stage and having girls holding up pictures of you." It took effort for the boys to keep their heads on straight: "A few minutes ago nobody cared, and now millions are screaming for you," Taylor Hanson says. "To keep your sanity, you have to believe it's not really you" they're screaming for.
"You get used to people catering to you," he says. "Then suddenly I was just another application number to get into UCLA." Joey McIntyre went a little crazy when New Kids broke up when he was 21. "I messed around and partied for a year or two," the singer says. "I needed to do that, to walk into a few walls." Now 31, he alternates between music projects and acting jobs such as the recurring role he had on Fox's Boston Public and a part in the forthcoming film Tony n' Tina's Wedding. Most former boy-band members try to remain in show business in some fashion. Last month, Ashley Parker Angel and another O-Town exile were spotted in New York auditioning for Rent. After Menudo, Rosello was a TV host in Brazil for four years. Now 32, he's a real estate broker and property manager in his native Puerto Rico.
Yes, things may be ugly in the shallow end of the pop music pool - the work is grueling, the chance of success slim, the management usually rapacious. But there's never a lack of talented kids clamoring to dive in. That's why it may be premature to trumpet the end of the boy-band era. "I'll tell you exactly when it'll be over," Pearlman says. "When God stops making little girls. Until then, we'll keep going."
The Week in Weird ...Proving that he actually does pay attention to the pleas of pundits around the world, Lance Bass has decided to jump out of a plane next month. The 'N Sync man will disappoint some by equipping himself with a parachute for the flying leap, which looks to be the closest he'll come to actually launching himself into outer space, as per his long-expressed dream. To be fair, we should give Bass credit, since he's undertaking the skydive as part of an effort to raise cash for the Tori Amos-touted Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a group that helps victims of the aforementioned crimes. Hey, as long as he doesn't have a microphone in his hand, he's got our blessing to do anything he wants... |
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