March 11th marked exactly 8 months since my first Riddle On Her Mind post. Since I now have a dozen posts spanning 14 months of information I think I might be able to start putting pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the information I was able to find I’d say the major theme of 2001 was ‘Justin Going Solo’.
In the research I compiled for my posts there were only 3 references to members of *NSYNC doing solo work in general but 6 references to Justin doing solo work specifically. Let’s look at the references in order:
January – Bill Zweker’s Chicago Sun Times article featuring a rumor that was Britney was urging Justin to go solo as soon as contractually possible.
February – British music website Freaky Trigger featuring gossip from the National Enquirer that Justin was working on a solo album with Richard Marx.
March – A fan site called One In A Million claiming that a representative from Jive denied Justin working on a solo album after he was supposedly seen working alone in a recording studio.
Entertainment columnist Liz Smith reporting that Justin met with Michael Jackson at the Neverland Ranch and possibly discussed some solo work.
April – A fan asking Justin about the solo project rumor when *NSYNC appeared on the TRL At Your House special.
May – The NsyncLife fan site has a transcript of a MSN chat session with manager Melinda Bell; when a fan asked if the members of *NSYNC had solo contracts signed Melinda denied it.
July – The NsyncGirl1ks fan site posts a transcript of the MSN Artist of the Month chat and a fan asked if any members of *NSYNC had solo plans. According to the transcript Joey responded that no one in the group planned to do any solo singing but members had done some things outside of the group.
August – When interviewed for TV Guide Wayne Brady was asked if the music project he wanted to do with Justin and Brian McKnight was a test run for a JT solo album. Wayne declined to answer directly.
November – Lance is interviewed by the Calgary Sun and reportedly said the members of *NSYNC discussed going solo but that no one in the group expressed a desire to break off.
December – In the book Out of Sync, Lance claims that he and Joey were hanging out in his hotel room when Justin approached the 2 of them about taking a 6 month hiatus in 2002. The reason for the proposed break was that Jive wanted Justin to complete a solo album.
If it was only 1 or 2 months where the JT solo rumors popped up it would be easier to dismiss them as just rumors. But considering that most of the mentions of solo projects revolved around Justin is it fair to use the old adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”? The rumor from January says that Justin was being encouraged to “forge ahead with his solo career as soon as contractually possible”. I won’t speculate about whether I think Britney was encouraging him or not because that’s not important. The important part is the “contractually possible” piece, which seems weirdly specific and raises some questions about *NSYNC’s contract with Jive. What needed to happen before a solo album was contractually possible? Were all members given a solo option in addition to their group contract?
Melinda said that the guys had solo contracts signed at the time, but that doesn’t preclude every member from having the option to sign a contract later. While it’s true that every member of the group had some ventures outside of *NSYNC (both Melinda and Joey referenced this fact) it doesn’t seem that any of those things would pose the same threat to the future of the group as a solo album, particularly if that album was from one of the group’s lead singers. Lance was quoted as saying that none of the guys were interested in solo work but that article was published in November, and within 2 month’s time Angie Stone was quoted as having been approached by Justin to work on his solo album. The Angie Stone thing is very interesting to me because it raises some questions about the timeline for the hiatus and when was proposed to *NSYNC. Angie said that Justin spoke with her during the soundcheck for the Billboard Music Awards, which aired on December 4, 2001.
So far I haven’t been able to pinpoint the date of when *NSYNC filmed a TRL holiday segment , which is the day Lance claims Justin first talked to him about the hiatus. Like I said in the December 2001 IG post, I was unable to find the taping Lance described in Out of Sync but there was an *NSYNC holiday segment for TRL in 2001. When Melinda recapped what the guys did in December in her online journal it appears to be in chronological order.
If the TRL taping was between the BBMAs and the CFTC holiday event wouldn’t it be mentioned in the Melinda’s Corner entry from December 20th? I understand that a lot of information from back then may be lost to time but I think it’s weird that there’s basically nothing to be found for this appearance. *NSYNC was a TRL mainstay and there’s been so many of their televised and live appearances documented online that I think it’s weird that I can’t find anything with a date on it. Without more information available it appears that Justin approached Angie Stone about his solo album before approaching the rest of the group about a hiatus, and if that’s really the case then it undermines the idea that *NSYNC’s hiatus was initiated because Lance wanted to be a space tourist. I’ll explore the idea of who “started” the hiatus some more in my reflections post for 2002.
Riddle On Her Mind 