If that duet would have gone down, it would have been the song of the millenium.
As the release of XSCAPE gets closer and closer, we’re sure we’ll be hearing more and more stories about Michael Jackson. After the producers roundtable and a trip down memory lane with MJ’s engineer, Justin Timberlake talks about a time before he was a solo artist and his experience with the King of Pop.
Apparently, JT wrote “Gone” for Michael back in 2001 and it was turned down by his camp. He then pitched it to *NSYNC as one of the first songs he’d ever written by himself and they recorded it for their third and last album. Later on when MJ heard it, he wanted to use it as a duet between him and Justin, but wouldn’t budge on the fact he didn’t want *NSYNC on there in any way, shape or form. Ouch.
OS REWIND: Michael Jackson – Love Never Felt So Good (feat. Justin Timberlake)
After his idol snubbed his homies in the boy band, Justin finally realized and felt confident that he could do something on his own without them. One year later, he released the critically acclaimed debut album Justified and soared up the ranks of Pop music forever. The rest is pretty much history. Imagine how much bigger he’d be if “Gone” would have been his first ever solo single out of the gate, though?
Justin Timberlake has not told this story to anyone before. Until now.