KIWIBOX INTERVIEW
I got this interview from www.kiwibox.com. Be sure to go there and sign up. (tell them you were referred by AWA_IN_NJ)
On
April 18th, Kiwibox.com and members of the Associate Press and reporters from
several newspaper and magazines participated in a joint interview with the boys
of *NSYNC. And Kiwibox is bringing you exclusive web transcripts of the full
interview, plus sound clips and chance to own a limited edition copy of the
interview tape.
So without furthur adieu, here are Lance, Justin and Joey. :)
Lance: Hello everybody WAAASSUP!! hello
Justin: Hello, I’d just like to say hi
Joey: Hello, hi
Q: Hi How are you guys doing, just want to get your reaction to the sales record
you set during 1st week, how you feel about it?
Joey: We were very excited, could only dream of
having some kind of goal like that We knew we were going to sell something, but
not to that stature, we are very excited, very thankful we didn’t break
records fans broke the record they are the ones that helped us to do that
Q: Any thoughts as to why it did so well?
Lance: I think it was just a great lead up to the
album. The album was just laid up for such a long time and the fans were just so
hungry for something out there and we’d been promoting for over ½ a year.
Jive did such a good job of getting the awareness out there the date that it
would be released. I think all that together and we did fifty million television
appearances
Q: Digital get down given the amount of concern about some young people become
victims of predators online, do you worry about the message that that sends to
some of your younger listeners about the kind of things you can do online?
Not really, that song was meant to be for fun, it
was written when the video concept came together and the video concept is all
having a party on the internet, actually like a club, like a virtual reality
club. It’s where you can get w/ your friends all around the world and have a
club, put the goggles on and you’re all on the dance floor dancin’ and
groovin’ That’s where the idea came from. Now the way that people take it is
their own interpretation. And the way most of our fans take it is dancing in a
club.
Q:
It seems to me a couple years into the phenomenal success you’ve had, all the
labels that have been thrown at you guys—bubble gum, just another boy
band—maybe we’re hearing that a little less. What’s your take on this? I
mean, obviously some critics say it’s just a phase, it’s just bubble gum,
these groups aren’t going to last, but I think with the record sales you’ve
caught a lot of people’s attention. What’s your take on the negative labels
that have been thrown out there at you guys.
Joey: I guess people just need a chance to listen
to it. I mean the people that, some of them that are critics, they a lot of
times they don’t even listen to our style of music, so they’re not really
into what we do and what we’re about. A lot of times they’re a lot older
people that listen to a lot more of whatever the case may be, be it classic rock
or something like that, and I guess people now are starting to see that we enjoy
the music, that we aren’t just trying to throw some thing together just to
sell the album. It’s something that we put our blood sweat and tears into.
Esp. this album because of all the legal issues, and people understand that,
that we’re not just a flash in the pan. You know, we try to make them
understand, a lot of people now are interested because of what we are about and
what we stand for and the music we produce that’s out.
Q:
What do you think of the success of 2ge+her, that parody band, and the Lou
Pearlman show Making the Band? How many teen bands can the world hold?
2ge+her, we actually like them, they’re so
funny., it’s not a serious thing, it’s actors. I think everyone’s kind of
taken the whole thing wrong with the teen bands. As much as there’s teen
bands, there’s the same amount of rock bands, r&b groups, solo acts, I
just don’t know one that stands out in everyone’s head. I think um the music
industry…I don’t know what they’re complaining about. I don’t know if
they just don’t understand, if they’re jealous of the young people, of what
they’re doing today, I think that a lot of older people in the music industry
are a little jealous that it’s working and they just don’t understand. I
think that’s one of the big reasons. And then the Lou Pearlman’s O-town, I
think it’s stupid, really. That’s not real. The thing we hate about it is a
lot of people, a lot of older people especially watch that show come up to us
saying like “That’s how you got together, I never knew it was like that.”
And that’s not how we got together. That’s how a lot of groups got together,
but that’s why we’re different. We weren’t put together by anybody. We
didn’t go to a boot camp audition. No training like that whatsoever. And
that’s why I think its really just a bunch of stupidity and I don’t think it
will ever last cause the groups already falling apart right now, you can’t put
a group together like that and expect it to last.
Q:
Now that you are more involved in writing. Are you getting more confident in
your role in the band and taking charge more creatively in regard to song
writing?
Joey: we’re heavily involved in everything, not
just the music. Everybody takes their part in doing stuff. I mean, I do write,
but I’m not like the greatest writer in the world every body takes their part.
Right now we just put together a design of the stage, doing the different ideas
and cuts of the video. Everything you see now a days is done by us, whether its
some of us producing or something like that, that’s a different story, but as
far as content ideas and video ideas and stage ideas the way the songs are set
up on stuff, the covers, pitures for magazines. What we do now is we pick
anything and everything that it goes through our hands, which is really good
cause now we have more control over it. For a while we never really did.
Pictures were just coming out, our tshirts that looked like crap and all this
other stuff and it’s something that it’s not really the biggest thing, but
with little things like that you want something that’s gonna be quality. You
don’t want to give back to our fans a piece of crap, basically, so we have a
lot of influence on everything that goes through N Sync.
Q:
Can you give us a sense of what to expect for the tour in terms of production
and some of the concepts you’re going to be doing during the show.
Lance: We took this tour to the next level. It’s
twice as big, absolutely huge. WE saw the outline of the stage for the first
time yesterday. The stage is being built now, it will be done on the 30th,
that’s when we start rehearsing on it. We get like a week and a half before
the tour starts. And then every song has it’s own gag effect throughout the
whole show. It’s amazing, the pyro and different things that, well, I can’t
reveal a lot of the gags we’re going to do, but it’s going to be very
entertaining and we’re going to get very close to everybody in the audience.
Q: Is it going to be made the next single, and is it gong to have a video and
have you done it and when will we be seeing it?
Joey: yes, we actually had a meeting a little while
ago about the content idea we had for it. It’s going to be neat. Pretty cool,
kind of like a Toy Story-ish kind of thing where it’s the whole theme with the
no string attached and we’re basically marionettes and in the store and it’s
pretty interesting. It’s like this girl is trying to purchase us and all the
other toys don’t want us to, they want to be the ones to be picked and fought
half the store. So you know, we fight some Barbie dolls, some teddy bears...we
haven’t come up with everything in detail but it was the concept we thought
of, the idea. It’s pretty cool, pretty different, we like to do little
humorous kind of things to make it kind of interesting. Plus also we had to do a
whole head cast for make up. They’re going to make us look plastic-like,
wooden-like I think like we are marionettes, but it’s going to look like us,
which is real weird.
Q:
I’d like to find out how much influence do JC’s parents currently have on
him in keeping him grounded and in his life at the moment.
Lance: I guess, I really can’t speak for him, but
each one of our families take a major role in our lives and JC also, his parents
are very involved with his life. They take care of all his business needs, I
know that. His mom, he talks to his mom everyday, and yes, his parents
definitely ground him a lot. They are very very down-to-earth people and
they’ll definitely slap him on the hand if he starts getting his head in the
clouds.
Q: I understand that Sisqo’s going to be joining you on tour and I was
wondering if you could talk a little more about him.
Joey: (singing) Thong thong thong thong thong.
Sisqo is a great guy. WE wanted to have, we weren’t really sure exactly what
we wanted to have as an opening act on the tour and we thought that since our
album is a little tad bit r&Bish, we wanted to bring something a little bit
different to the table and we didn’t want to have you know , like last tour we
had a slew of different people. But now I think we’re having Sisqo and I
believe pink is opening up for us so I mean he’s a very very talented guy,
he’s a very good entertainer. We never really saw him perform till we say him
in Germany when we did a show he’s a very great performer, almost like a
little Michael Jacksonish kind of show, very poppy as far as dancing is
concerned he’s always making every thing very big and dramatic and tries to
touch the people that are in the crowd all the way back to the cheap seats.
He’s a very very talented guy. His sound’s great.
Q: This question is for Lance, your birthday is approaching on May 4th and you
turn 21 (insert shout of joy from lance) what are your big plans?
Lance: (Laughing) Well, actually that’s the last
day we get to rehearse in Orlando, so I’m going to be working all day, then
I’m going to be traveling to Mississippi. (Joey says: we’re going to be
partying all night on the bus!) And I have to travel from Mississippi back home
then go and pack before the tour starts then go to Biloxi. (Joey inserts,
"But he likes to gamble") and I can now gamble (woohoo)
Q: I was wondering what, with the popularity of documentaries like VH1 behind
the music and stuff that focus a lot on teen idols, if you ever wondered if
you’d be giving these kind of interviews, maybe ten years from now. Are you
taking notes from these former teen idols?
Joey: The only thing we’ve had really dramatic in
our lives is the lawsuit, the legal issue, but everybody was like…it was
always like somebody was a drug addict and they were feeling animosity towards
the guys in your group or this and that and it’s not even…we wouldn’t be
very exciting. We’d probably make the show funny, but we’re not , there’s
not a lot of things they can put on us…I mean a lot of times those shows are
just a fad because of things that happened, downfalls that they had. But of
course if it’s five or ten years from now, who knows. Yeah, I take notes once
in a while. I take a look like ok, they did this, make sure we don’t do that.
He did this, don’t do that. It’s kind of interesting.
Q:
What kind of people, or whether you envisioned a certain ideal audience for
these songs, what inspired them, what’s in your mind when you’re writing
them, who do you think you are writing for?
Most of the stuff that we come up with is very spur
of the moment. A lot of stuff I know that JC did on this last album he did on
tour and it would just come after a show and he wrote it all in one night. A
song a night. He was inspired by our fans on tour, just the energy that they put
out, that’s why he did all up-tempo songs and just craziness like space
cowboy. He wanted to touch on the millennium and the end of the world and we got
all that creativity from the energy of our fans.
Q: I just wanted to know on this upcoming tour whether you feet a need to kind
of show off different things than you did on the last tour and if you feel the
need to make it bigger and better kind of what you can let us know about what to
expect.
Joey: WE want to try to make it a step up, a little
bit bigger, a little better. We want to give a chance for people to see what
we’re about and how we always dreamt of doing things as far as stages and
stuff like that. I mean, it was hard to do stuff when we first started, but now
that we have the momentum that we have, it’s a great thing. I mean a lot of
the thing we wanted to do as far as having different gags on stage like flying
rigs, trap doors, different moving things, stuff like that, and I feel it’s
going to be a good show, I can guarantee it. We’re a little nervous right now
because of the expectations people have, I mean we sold over one mil tickets in
one day, so we know people are out there they are interested to see they show,
and we want to give the best show that we can and that’s why we have all this
new choreography and stuff. It’s like we’re learning a whole new tour cause
I mean the last tour we did a lot of songs, we new, that were in our heads, but
now these re new songs that we’ve never done before and we’re trying to
incorporate all this into this new stage we have. I mean this stage is just
completely mad, it’s got a lot of people will enjoy it and we hope you will
come out and check it out.
Question:
If you found out that the world was going to end in five minutes what would you
want to do in those last five minutes?
Lance: Ahhhhhhhh!!! I would definitely want to call
all of my friends and family. That would take to long, that would take longer
than five minutes. I don’t know what I would do, I would probably like… I
don’t know, I’d pray. I’d feel little bands and then you know, whatever…
there’s no point in really worring about it, because you know, if you’re
going to die, you’re going to die. So it’s just like wooo hooo! It’s like
I don’t know, do a dance, run around naked or something I don’t know.
Question: I was in curious what role did Trans Continental Records and Lou
Pearlman have in your early career.
Lance: They had a major role in the very beginning.
He was our first supporter, he was the one who put the money behind this, you
know, when we wanted to start this group he knew that we were serious. So, we
basically did it with his money. And Trans Con as a whole didn’t really
support us, we were kind of the redheaded step child… heh heh. We really
weren’t known… Trans Com, and the people working there… we weren’t
really revealed, we were hidden there for a while. We really don’t know why..
then eventually they started to know about us and started to work for us. But
the real supporter was Johnny Wright, they just kind of disappeared and really
had no role anymore and that’s the reason we got rid of them.
Question:
What was your earliest music influence, and the first record album you ever
bought.
Lance: Whitesnake.
Joey: We’re not going to take a twisted sister, single vinyl, go figure that
one out.
Question: You guys spend a lot of time rehearsing and getting ready for the show
and everything, how do you find time to work on other projects?
Joey: It is very hard, we try to just because, and
we also have all the people who are working for us on those other side projects.
And we enjoy it, it is kind of like a hobby, a side thing to get our minds, not
off what we do of course, but to learn other things about especially the
entertainment business as far as what we’re doing. Me and Lance we have a
production company that we just put together for film, and we’re doing that.
Lance actually has his own management company with two country artists right now
his roster is growing right now. So a lot of different things, and I guess the
way we handle it is like I said would be other people working for us. And while
we are on the road constantly using cell phones and fax machines, those and
computers tend to help a lot.
Question:
Contrast making this album with the first album, was there much pressure on you
making this new album.
Lance: Well, compared to the first album, the first album we…it’s weird our
because we started in Germany first about four years ago and that was our actual
first album and that we had hardly any creative control over even though we
wanted to. The record company just wouldn’t listen, you know telling us we
needed to do to kiss this producer’s butt because then he’d give you another
song, and all this kind of stuff. So we did some crap songs and then when we put
together some of that material for our American album, still on that album we
really didn’t have any creative control because they wanted to use most of the
songs from the first album and a lot of songs we didn’t like. And again we had
to work with a lot of producers that you know, we really didn’t like or care
for. With the second album, that’s when we left the record company and did it
independently and that was just us. We called the producer’s we wanted to work
with, we wrote half the album. You know it’s our baby, we are very proud of
it. And yes, the pressure was definitely on because everyone was going to know
that that was us, and if there was any fault in the album the reason was because
of us. It was a lot of pressure, but we are very proud of it, but our fans love
it and we love it and that’s really all we care about.
Question: I know you guys are going to be bouncing back and forth between
stadiums and arenas. Is the show itself going to change much, and is the
performance going to change much when you are going to perform for 60,000-seat
venue compared to 15-20,000 seat.
Well, we will look a little bit smaller to some of the people in the audience
but as far as the show, no nothing is going to change at all, the only thing
that is going to change is that we are going to have these long ramps off to the
side so nobody can run down as they get closer to the stairs on the side.
Question: As far as the show?
No, it’s not going to change, more pyrocues, more
bigger effects because it’s a bigger place. But we aren’t sizing down
anything, changing anything. The problem last year was that we had a fly ring
that went out into the audience. And with a stadium we did a couple of them, and
we couldn’t do it. I’m just told that we are actually going to be going out
into the audience, it’s going to be a little bit different and we can do it
for stadiums, arenas, wherever we need to do it, so that’s pretty cool.
Question:
Your tour dates seem pretty rigorous. Do you have any time to do anything fun
while you are on the road?
Lance: No. On the days off we’ll be sleeping, actually on our days off we are
working most of the time. Our first day off is in May and we’re going to
Canton film festival and we’re actually announcing a movie project that
we’re going to be doing at Canton. We like to do little sports events here and
there, we are doing our second annual challenge for the children basketball game
in NY in July and that’s going to be a lot of fun because we get a lot of our
friends together and play basketball for charity. We don’t really know what we
are going to do in our off days this time because a lot of local baseball or
softball team will call us and we’ll set up matches with them on our off days.
It’s a lot of fun. We try to get our mind off the tour when we’re off.
Question: Much has been made of the more prominent R&B/hip hip flavor of the
new album. Just curious as to what motivated moving in that direction.
Joey: I think the reason we went to more hip hop
R&B flavor is because that’s what we like, what we were raised on and that
is what our fans like and enjoy. It is so weird our fans like our style of music
and their second favorite is hip hop and R&B. So we are going to incorporate
that and do the music that we like to do. If it sounds more hip hop and R&B
than so be it. We just think it is a total different sound as a whole. We call
it dirty pop.
Question:
With all this talk of Diva’s Live and such, who is the biggest Diva of Nsync
and why?
The biggest Diva would have to be JC and Justin.
Justin I would say.
Primadonna not Diva!
He just has the attitude that goes along with what
he does, he just loves to go off on his thingy with the passion and everything
that he sings. I wish I could sing like that. Not many people can get away with
what he can.
Yeah I mean he can just wail, I mean and the personality that he puts behind it.
It is just the confidence he has you know, total diva.
Question: How do you guys continue to deal with the madness of the fans, do you
guys have any life for yourself. When you last came through our town, West Palm
Beach last year, I think it may have been one of you, Joey’s parents audience
and fans were grabbing the parents and saying, “I touched Joey’s Dad!” I
am trying to imagine what it is like, how do you have any room for yourself, how
do you have a life.
Joey: Now days it is kind of hard to, it is very
exciting to have that impact on people as far as meeting, now that they met us
and see us they want to meet our parents and our brother’s nephew’s friends.
It is kind of interesting. We were very excited about it that everything is just
been growing who knows what is going to happen when we our out there now. We are
very excited.
Question:
I saw you guys in concert and you have a very good comrade going on stage, I
wondering how you handle it when the media makes Justin, well you know the No
Doubt video they take Gwen Stephanie and they push her in the front….
We’ve seen that all the time!
Question: How do you feel when the media pushes Justin?
We don’t care; we think it’s funny. We always
kid him. I’m kind of glad, it’s not me, its just more pressure on him.
People watch him more. I don’t like to be the front man. I am very happy with
what I am doing; the way we think about it it’s funny. Every band has that
person; one will stick out that is focused on. He’s someone that they relate
to. It just happens to be him. The girls love him; he’s a young one.
Question: Lance, tell us everything about the film project you mentioned, the
plot, who’s in it…. And are you gunning to break the Titanic box office
record.
Well we’re hoping to, me and Joe we’ve been
writing a screenplay for the last four years, we really haven’t been taking it
seriously until recently. We met some great people in the film industry and
we’ve decided why not, just go for it. So we decided to do a movie together.
Everyone’s heard of the movie we trying to do with Tom Hank with play tone.
That one got delayed so… we jumped on this. We can’t really tell you what it
is, but you’ll definitely know in May. It’s going to be a huge, huge movie.
And we’ve got some major, major people and we’re actually the five stars in
it with another person that you’re going to know very well. It is going to be
filmed January 2001 to March and April 2001 and it is going to be released for
Christmas time 2001 and that’s all I’ve got to say.
Question:
I have a question about the Challenge for Children. I know last year was a huge
success and this year is going to be even more. I was wondering who this years
celebrities were going to be.
We don’t actually know because we haven’t sent
out the invitations yet, so we don’t know who’s going to show up; it going
to be up in New York so we expect a lot of people to show. This time we are
actually inviting a lot of women to play too. Rosie O’Donnell with probably be
playing, we’ll get Sisqo and Pink will be playing because they will be on tour
with us. Brian McKnight will definitely come back with his brother.
We’ll also invite all the basketball players again, like Coby Briant and Regie
Miller and anyone we can get out there.
Question: I wanted to know what you guys think about this whole thing with
Backstreet, I know you’re really cool about it but they made some comments and
I know AJ has made some comments recently about when their new album comes out
and it’s going to be bye bye bye to everyone else. What do you guys think
about that?
I think it is funny. I wish we wouldn’t have
broken the record because now it is going to be the focus, you know with
Britney’s new album and I don’t know its just… we lose the whole effect.
I feel sorry for them because they feel as though they (Backstreet Boys) have to
prove something. They are very successful in what they do and very talented. But
the thing is if they don’t break the record in October than, what does that
mean, the album is going to suck? I mean it’s going to be good. I just hope
that if they don’t break it, people are still going to get it because that
doesn’t mean that it is not good.
Question: Do you feel trapped, if the public found out that you were dating
somebody, this could potentially [Oh no!] a million girls to commit suicide. How
do you feel about this kind of pressure, and if you are dating anybody how do
they feel about this?
Well as far as dating and dealing with suicide
whatever, I hope they realize that of course we are men and that we will go out
and date people. Right now it is kind of hard within the time that we have
because we are getting in touch with our fans as far as going on tours and stuff
so we don’t get a lot of time do date. But when we do, and we do have a
girlfriend, we do want to let people know and we will. But it is kind of our
business, it is our private life. A lot of time we aren’t going to tell you
who the person is and what their name is just for their own privacy. People will
know.
We do date. I go out on dates a lot.
I mean talking from personal experience, I dated
someone last year for 9 months and the fans knew her and everything and at first
it was a little weird you know and they got used to it though and they were very
supportive. So our fans, they weren’t cruel, they supported everything and
they were very happy for me.
Question:
Lance, talk a little about the side project with the country acts he is
promoting and he is currently working with. How is that working out for him?
I have two artists Merideth Edwards and Jack Defeo.
Merideth is with Mercury records in Nashville and is currently recording her
album as we speak. Jack is unsigned right now, we had a lot of offers and he
will probably be signed in the next couple of weeks and then start working on
his album this summer and there is several people that I am looking at that are
just incredible I am not going for country, I either want to go for rock or pop
or R&B. We are having a big talent search this summer that will be announced
in the next couple of weeks and we’ll be going to a couple of the big cities
around America and have a huge talent search.
Question: What is the most extravagant thing that you have bought?
That’s the most extravagant thing I’ve ever
bought was my house. I’m by myself and I’m happy!
Lance: I guess the most extravagant thing I’ve ever bought was my house too. I
bought a house in the Mississippi.
Lance: When we’re on the road the thing that we
miss the most is free time and being in your own bed every night. You miss your
family and your friends, you don’t get to see them much. When you’re off
tour you crave the stage time, when you want to be on stage and you miss it when
you get off for a while. Once you are on tour and you’re doing it and you’re
almost at the end you’re like, man I can’t wait until this is over and I
can’t wait to get home, but right now, we’re are just about to get back on
tour and I can’t wait to get back on stage. There is no other feeling like it.
I enjoy the bus and traveling, it’s better than doing the promotional tour,
because you actually have a place to go to every night. You can get organized
and get all your work done on the bus, and you have your own bunk and
everything, it is kind of like a house on wheels.
Question:
Who’s dog is that barking?
Joey: That’s mine, heh heh. That’s a miniature
pincher, she won’t shut up.
Question: You are very frequently described as a ‘teen groups’, does that
really describe your audience.
Lance: Our audience has changed over the past four
years. When we first started five years ago, our audience was Mickey Mouse Club
fans, a young teen audience. Then we went to Germany, and it was a variety of
fans. It was majority girls, but of all ages. Then we came to America and no one
knew who we were, we started with clubs. All our fans were over 21, guys and
girls, you know college people because they were the ones who get into clubs, 21
and up. And they loved it. And then our fans grew into teens, and parents. Then
our second album appealed to so many more people, like everybody out there. It
appeals to all ages, and we have a lot of guys fans, girl fans, parents,
grandparents, all these people come to our shows now. And that’s the market
we’re actually going for, its everybody and anybody. There’s something for
everybody on this album.
Question:
When your recording was in limbo because of the legal battles with Trans
Continental and Lou Pearlman, seeing the cyclical cycle in the music industry
where certain things come into power, into prominence, and say, was there ever
any worry that you guys were going to be held in limbo, in this legal battle,
was everything going to back to grunge.
Heh heh, we thought about that, that was a chance
that we had to take, there was no doubt in our minds that we knew what we had
and what the truth was, and how we had things situated and we knew that, we knew
in our minds it wasn’t going to be a very long dispute because, the fact that
it was, what we knew. That’s why we settled out of court, and everything was
squared away, and we’re happy the albums out and we’re going to go on tour.
Question: Because you guys work with managers and promoters in the pop music
business, the thing with Ricky Martin, did you guys see the Barbara Walters
special?
No.
Well, the whole thing where people think he is gay, and he wants to come out,
but the industry won’t let him. Do you think that would effect his popularity
or a pop stars popularity?
Lance: I don’t think so at all, in fact I think
that would probably help his popularity. If he came out and was honest with
everybody noone would care, which I don’t think its anyone’s business, it is
his personal life anyway. I don’t think anyone is going to… we are now in an
age where no one really cares anymore. Its so… out there now that people have
gotten so used to it that it is not going to matter. And several people have
proved that already.
Question: Tell me about your desire or any plans to do solo work.
Joey: As far as songs, and singing, not really,
there might be other project that we might do where like what JC did on the
Blaque album, you know sing a song with somebody else. As far as a solo album, a
solo career, I don’t think that’s the case. We all have separate projects on
the side. Me and Lance just got a film production company on the side we’re
doing now, Lance got his own country artist, I’m helping out with a book,
doing other stuff as well, JC has his writing, Justin has his foundation in his
writing, Chris is doing clothing lines, everyone is doing something. As far as
solo career wise, that is probably not going to happen, until like maybe when
we’re really really old. Heheh.
Question: What are Nsync’s plans for a world tour, is it going to happen right
after this one?
Lance: It is, we’re going to take August and
September to write this next album we’re going to go right ahead and record
the third album. Yeah, we’re going to write this third album in August and
September and we’re going to go on tour in Europe with Britney Spears
actually, both of us are going to hit the road again together. We’re going to
tour for about 10 week and then come back to America and start another tour N.
American tour for Christmas. We’re going to blow it out because we’re going
to be out of commission for a few months doing this movie in the beginning of
2001 and then hopefully we’ll release the new album hopefully the same time we
did this year, hopefully March again.
Question:
What is you favorite TV shows now, if you even have time to watch TV. And when
you were little, what was your favorite TV show then?
Lance: Growing up I loved Mash and Cheers, those
were my favorite shows. Right now, I really don’t know what is going on in
television, I still like Friends if I still get to see that but nothing really
stands out.
Joey: Um. Well I used to watch Three’s Company, after school I used to watch
The Monkee’s every day. Now days I watch anything I can get my hands on, I
don’t get a lot of time to watch TV.
Question: Is there a artist or political figure that you wanted to meet that
you’ve been able to because of your status?
The Pope. We’ve met a lot of great people, from
President Clinton to Garth Brooks, we’ve gotten to meet a lot of people that
we’ve looked up to. And the great thing is when you meet them they live up to
your expectations. It is always bad when you meet somebody and say, ‘They’re
not as great as I expected them to be.’ But everybody we meet is really cool
and really humble.
Question: Nsync Live on TRL, Lance and Justin were saying how you went to the
movies, how did you go to the movies in the middle of the New York City and not
get attacked?
You go very late, and you wear a hat. Actually it
is something really cool, because we just walked by ourselves through Times
Square late at night, there were still people on the street, but we had a hat
and it felt great.
Question: If you could go back to the Joey and Lance of one year ago, what would
you have done differently?
Lance: Um, don’t sign that paper! By that time we
already signed it! I would give the advice, especially with the lawsuits that we
had, that everything is going to work out in the end. I would tell myself,
don’t get a dog because it’s too much trouble.
Joey: I don’t know…
Question: If you had to pick a theme song, not one of your own that describes
your life right now, what would it be?
Joey: Michael Jackson song that is “off the
wall” album called working day and night. That’s my life so far.
Lance: I like the cheers theme song. I like to have a lot of friends and it is
cool to be around your friends.
Question: I read recently that you guys are going to do a TV Movie for ABC, is
there any truth to that?
Lance: We are? Heh, no, we actually met with them a
couple of years ago to do a TV series with them. Actually we were going to do
‘Together’ on MTV, you know that’s fun stuff for us, but we just realized
that we had no time to do it. A TV show is virtually impossible to do unless we
only filmed three months out of the year. The movie appealed to us a little
more, maybe after the movie next year it will spin off into a TV series but you
never know. That will come, later. We’ll find out.
Question:
You guys are playing this big festival for Kiss 98 radio station down here, and
after getting tickets I found out that you are hosting it. Are you actually
going to be performing?
Lance: They asked us to host it this year, but if
we go we are going to end up having performing.
Joey: We probably will do something, if time prevails, we will do something. I
know people might have been mislead, but yeah we’re just going to be hosting
it. Maybe we’ll grab one of the artists and do a duet, but we can’t stay on
stage.
Question: How do you guys try to plan for the longevity as far as right now you
getting a teen audience, or are you going to evolve into a more contemporary
group or are you always going to hit that teen young 20’s audience.
We are always going to grow up with our fans, those
teens can’t stay teens forever, neither could we. I mean the music has to
evolve with every album just like this album evolved from the last one, it grew
up with our fans. We like it, kind of keep it different, with our fans like the
movie. Kind of different things for them to watch or be a part of. You got to
keep it different for them or you’re never going to last.
Question: You mentioned going on tour with Britney and so many of the pop acts
now are lumped like this, a fourty-headed monster or something. When you are all
in Orlando do you see eachother or hang out with each other?
Lance: Yeah, we’re best friends. Me and Joey went
to see Blood Hound gang the other night.
Joey: Lately we’ve been hanging out a lot too, last night we went to Hard
Rock, we went to the Groove before that.
Lance: I know what’s up with that.
Joey: We were surprised that the four of us went to a club one night at the same
time and didn’t even realize it.
Lance: I know, we went to CityWalk here in Orlando, and it just so happened, we
all knew we were going but then, Joey pulled up, Chris pulled up next to him,
and then I pulled up next to him. And then JC met us later with his brother. So
yeah, we all hang out, we all get along, and it’s kind of sickening that
we’re still best friends still.
Question:
Knowing that your audience is preteen, what effect does knowing that those kids
are going to be in the audience impact how you when your planning the tour,
picking your opening acts what may or may not be appropriate for your live show.
We think about that stuff, we know it is a family
oriented show and we’re not going to go out there and start taking our clothes
off and flashing everything. Even with Sisqo opening up, he does a lot of crazy
and sexually explicit stuff but he knows to tone it down. We told him, “you
know what kind of audience it is…” and he said that he knew to tone it down.
We understand what is good for our audience and what the line is, and if we go
over it we’re sorry but we think it appeals to everyone.
Question: A lot of your fans camp out overnight for tickets, but what concert
would you camp for when you were younger and now?
Joey: I wouldn’t camp out, but I’d get there
really early for Tom Petty. No one comes to Jackson, Mississippi, so that is the
only one I waited that long in line for.
Lance: I never waited in line for a concert, it’s not because I didn’t want
to go but my mom never wanted me to go because she thought it would be one of
those heavy metal slam dance rock groups. I don’t know what she thought, the
only thing I waited in line for was a Batman movie. I waited a long time for
that, but never for a concert.
Question: About your live show, who did the choreography and the costumes?
Joey: Actually we had six choreographers, Jamal Azzario was one of the guys. We
split the choreography simply because there are so many songs that we couldn’t
give it to just one choreographer. It wouldn’t have been enough time. Jamal
Azzario, did two of our songs, Wade did two of our songs, Darren Henson and Tony
did another two of our songs. Right now we are learning and still doing
rehearsals today actually. We only have one more song to do, we are ahead of
schedule actually we are very happy. And now the hard part is coming up very
soon when we come up on stage and try to work out pyro cues and all the little
gags we are going to work out in the show. It is going to be very hard and very
dangerous. It will all come together and be a great show.
Question: What is your weirdest fan experience that you have ever encountered?
Lance: The scariest came the other night, was the
first time I was ever scared for my life. I walked from this hotel to Hard Rock,
and you have to walk through Universal City Walk, the park was closing at that
time so it was like Mardi Gras and there was so many people there. I was walking
with my my roommate and I didn’t have a hat or anything. And there were so
many people no one will ever see. One person screamed and it was like all 10,000
people started screaming and running towards me, it was very scary. My roommate
grabbed security and they rushed me to the show. So that was very scary.
Question:
It is interesting to hear that you have a roommate. How does your roommate deal
with this, and moreover your friends?
Lance: They love it!
Joey: As far friends are concerned, they think its interesting because they
don’t get to see that everyday. As far as my best friend Eric he’s used to
it because he sees it everyday.
Lance: My roommate at the very beginning worked for us as our personal assistant
from five years ago so he’s very used to it.
Question: Are you ever going to end up doing any collaboration with Britney
Spears?
Lance: There has been talks about it. I think it
would be one of the hottest songs ever. I would want to do something like a
Janet Jackson-Michael Jackson “Scream” that is very edgy, very dance
oriented because she’s such a performer. I think it would be a great
collaboration, and actually I was talking with her about that just the other day
cause she’s releasing her album in may and we’re going to be doing our album
August/September and that’s like, ok, this next album we’re going to write
something and it’s going to be a killer killer duet, so maybe on the next
album.
Question: Since you are so busy and in the industry, you must have a lot of
vices thrown at you. I wanted to address the drug issue that is destroying a lot
of music today. What is your stance on drugs?
Joey: As far as we’re concerned, I mean, we
don’t preach don’t do drugs or don’t do this or do this or do that, but as
far as we’re concerned we were raised what’s right and what’s wrong. We
were raised pretty well and I think you can pretty much tell that we don’t
just by our actions and the things that we do. When you see other people as far
as artists or people like that, some of them are not too up or not to par with
their jobs. They start to slack.
Lance: Well it destroys you. We have never touched it and we will never touch
it. It destroys a group. We’ve seen it before and we’ve seen it out on the
road and we’ve all talked about it and we’ve never even wanted to. It’s
just never been an issue with us and we’re just very lucky that all five of us
are just very against it.
Question: What is the best advise you’ve ever been given?
Lance: The best advice I’ve ever heard is know your power. Know who controls
your business—and that’s you. We lost that until this last year. That we are
in control and without us five guys, nothing could happen. I mean, the record
company couldn’t print out an album, nothing. We just finally realized that
and we took control of our own business and we’re very happy about that and
we’re excited to say that everything you see is done by us and it’s
dangerous to say that cause if anything goes wrong we’re going to be blamed,
but that’s okay cause we learn from our mistakes and…
Joey: Nobody’s perfect
Lance: Exactly
Question:
When you talk about Lance’s encounter out at Universal and the joy of being
able to go out late at night to a movie and not get bothered and have to wear
hats and stuff, do you ever just wonder, “What kind of life is this and this
really worth it?”
Lance: It’s actually kind of interesting, living
out a fantasy, what you always dream about, people knowing who you are and
everything, but it’s a job and it’s the the consequences we have to take. We
knew that things were going to get a little crazy and things might happen to
wear people would want to know your business, paparazzi is going to be coming
out and we really honestly have not much to hide so we don’t mind being in the
mind of the public. Of course there are times when we want to have our private
time and be left alone just like anybody does. Just like you come in to work and
some days you’re just like, “Gosh, I don’t want to be at work right now.
Do I have to do this?” But for us it makes it all worthwhile when we see our
fans and how excited they are to see us. And we love it, we do. We just happen
to be the lucky few out there who actually enjoy their job, and so as long as
it’s fun for us and we still enjoy it, we’re going to keep going. Once you
start saying, “I’m not having fun anymore,” it’ll all be over.
Question:
Say someone was making an ‘N Sync movie: Which actors are playing who?
What’s the plot? What’s the happily-ever-after ending?
Lance: I would have to play myself because I would
just want to, because no one ever tells me that I look like anyone or what ever.
David Schwimmer would be Joey. Ryan Phillipe would be Justin Timberlake. JC, I
guess he’d have to play himself. The way it would end would be us…
Joey: …riding off into the sunset with cowboy hats and horses.
Lance: We’d be very old on stage, not dancing though, just standing
still…Like the Rolling Stones doing a stadium show. That would be amazing.