Justin Timberlake: ‘I’m Definitely Working on a New Album’
Following the release of his first new song in three years, Justin Timberlake has confirmed that a follow-up to The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2 is in the works. The singer and actor spoke with radio stations Friday morning in support of his latest single “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” off the Trolls soundtrack.
“I don’t know exactly when I’m going to put it out but yeah, I’m definitely working on a new album,” Timberlake told Carson Daly on 97.1 AMP Radio’s Morning Show. As for the sound of the new music, the pop star is going back to his roots.
“I think where I grew up in America has a lot of influence,” he said. “Growing up in Tennessee — very central of the country — Memphis is known as the birthplace of rock & roll, but also the home of the blues, but Nashville’s right down the street so there’s a lot of country music.”
Last November, Timberlake made a high-profile appearance at the CMA Awards where he sang with New Artist of the Year winner Chris Stapleton on Timberlake’s own “Drink You Away” and the George Jones classic “Tennessee Whiskey.” Their televised duet had a huge hand in breaking Stapleton to a larger audience outside of the country scene where he had been a songwriter for a while.
In March, Timberlake hinted at a collaboration with Little Big Town, posting a selfie on Instagram with members Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman as they were writing together. He has also posted photos of himself in the studio with regular collaborators Pharrell and Timbaland.
As the film’s executive music producer and voice actor, Timberlake said he gained inspiration from films like Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Urban Cowboy. “The whole point is if you’re able to write something fun that can get people’s butts out of their seats then I think it’s all the better for the movie,” he told Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show.