| I found this article from one of my yahoogroups
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
He's barely old enough to vote. But he's wise enough to ignore gay
rumors and welcome gay fans. No lawsuits; no put-downs. That's why
Justin Timberlake is one of The Advocate's 10 Coolest Straight People
of 2002.
By Larry Flick
Justin Timberlake is an anomaly in pop music. At a time when jock-
grabbin' rappers and tight-fisted rockers are mining platinum sales
on the basis of a heterocentricity that specifically – often
phobically – excludes gays, he strives to play on a level, all-
inclusive playing field. Since rising to fame as the "soulful blond
one" in *NSYNC several years ago, he's not only captured the fanciful
attention of teenage girls, he's also become the object of many a
young, gay man's fantasy – a fact that makes him grin and
declare, "That's cool. I'm down with it."
Actually, Timberlake is apparently more than cool with queer ties
bound to him. A perennial figure on the tabloid media's guess list of
closeted homosexuals – despite a much-publicized romance with fellow
teen dream Britney Spears – he's angered not by the speculation but
by the notion that he'd conceal the truth about himself. "If I was
gay," he asserts, "that wouldn't be a big deal, so why would I hide
it?"
Just as he delights in confounding racial separatists by crafting
material that demands airplay on African-American-dominated R&B radio
stations, he playfully toys with queer-conscious imagery – as
evidenced by a smoldering homoerotic photo shoot he did with
photographer Steven Klein earlier this year for England's Arena Homme
magazine as well as by his portrayal of a young Elton John in the
video for the single "This Train." For Timberlake, it all adds up to
a chance to "step outside myself" in an empathetic manner. For his
gay audience, it's a chance to witness and appreciate the actions of
a cool straight man whose poise and maturity belie his 21 years.
What do you think about the fact that you probably have as many gay
male fans as you do hetero female ones?
I've been screaming for years about the power of music and how the
beauty of it is that I can bring all kinds of different people
together – different races, different cultures, different sexual
orientations. It's one of the reasons why I make music – to live in a
world where it's cool to be whatever and whoever you are.
When did you first become aware of your gay following?
It was always there, and I have always been aware of it. I'm the kind
of artist who wants to know all of his audience and what they're
about. Actually, it's funny to be talking about gay people being into
me and *NSYNC right now, because I'm also answering a lot of
questions lately about being heard and accepted in the urban world.
It strikes me as odd that people in the media are so curious or
surprised to see people of different backgrounds or with different
lives embracing some of the same things. I don't see what the fuss is
all about.
Have you ever felt like you or *NSYNC were being marketed to
specifically attract gay listeners?
No, I don't think so. From song to song we saw where things went and
let it roll naturally. There was never a plan beyond making songs
that a lot of people might like.
One typical straight-male teen put-down of so-called boy bands is
that they're "too gay." How do you respond to that?
It's a case of people being narrow-minded and judgmental. But that's
part of life, I suppose. If you put yourself out there, you're going
to have haters – people who are there just to try to knock you down.
It's a drag, but at the same time, I don't really care. If I was to
let everything that people say hurt me, I'd go crazy. The truth is
that people have wanted to write me and the group off from the very
beginning. After all of that, the least of my concers is whether or
not people think my music is "too gay."
Can you tell me whether any of your "handlers" are gay?
I respect the privacy of people in my life because I know what it's
like to have your privacy violated. Suffice it to say that I have
amazing people around me and some of them are gay.
Without outing anyone, do you know of popular young gay musicians who
are afraid to come out?
I don't know that I've encountered anyone who's afraid to come out as
much as they've chosen not to at this point in their lives.
Have you discussed this with them? What do you think about how hard
or easy it might be to come out?
As far as America is concerned – as opposed to Europe, where there's
a vast difference in how gays are perceived – the need to stay in the
closet seems to stem more from childhood and less from pressures of
any specific industry. It also has a lot to do with the times and
culture. For people in my generation, it's been easier to talk about
being gay than in yours.
[Coughs, laughs] My generation?
[Grins] I'm 21. How old are you?
I'm 39, which makes me 18 years older than you – which makes me old
enough to be your father.
Wassup, Daddy! [Laughs] Nah, nah, I'm just playing with you. But
seriously, back when you turned 21, coming out of the closet was not
acceptable at all. It seems like an easier time now to be coming out,
though I would imagine that it's tough any time you're dealing with
something big in your life. Just 21, period, it's tough. It was for
me, just in terms of living in a world that just doesn't always seem
fair on so many levels. But in terms of anyone coming out, including
an artist in the music business, it seems to me that it would stem
from insecurity that someone in their past has inflicted upon them,
something from long before they were in the business.
Do you think the industry and the people who buy records are more
accepting of gay people?
Maybe I'm naпve, but I think so. The world is constantly evolving.
There are still racist and sexist people, but more people are getting
smarter.
It's often said that teen-oriented acts carry responsibility as role
models to their fans. Have you felt that kind of responsibility
toward your young gay fans?
I've felt a responsibility to a particular group of people. To me,
the real role models of the world are parents. That's where I've
always looked for guidance. I actually asked my mother once how she
would feel if I came to her and told her that I was gay or if I was
different from the other kids in any other way, and she said, "I
would be completely accepting."
Why did you ask her that?
No real reason, except I was starting to see how the world was full
of different people, and it made me wonder what my mom thought.
Looking back, it helped me feel good about the person I was becoming.
I know in my heart, if I can make a decision my parents would feel
good about, I don't have to worry about anything else.
It sounds like you have a great relationship with your parents.
Yeah, I'm lucky. I was raised well. To go back to the idea of me
being a role model, I see young boys coming to concerts with their
heads shaved because I shaved my head, stuff like that. I think
that's cool. It's great. But at the end all I can do is tell kids
what I've learned – that you can't change who you are. And you
shouldn't change who you are because of what someone else thinks or
says. Be the person you are. Be proud. That's what makes you
beautiful. That's what makes you special.
As a young boy from the South, what kind of exposure did you have to
gay people?
I was raised just outside Memphis, in Millington, Tenn. There weren't
a lot of gay people there. But that wasn't even the big issue there.
This is the city where Martin Luther King was assassinated. This was
a conservative part of the world. This was the Bible Belt.
What did you think when you first had contact with a gay person?
I've been in the business since I was 11 years old, so I had the
chance to be exposed to the world outside Millington from an early
point in my life. I didn't think anything different about gay people
from any other people I met. When you know who you are, there's no
need to feel weird or threatened or fearful of people who aren't
exactly like you. People who are different can be more fun to be
around because you're learning new things and becoming smarter about
that world. Beyond that, one of my best friends from when I was 14
was gay.
What did you think when you found out?
I always knew. It just took him a while to get the courage up to tell
me. When he did, I told him that it didn't matter. It didn't change
the fact that he was my friend. I wasn't thinking that he wanted to
be more than my friend, and he wasn't.
It's funny, men are taught by TV and other types of media to exploit
women – to look at them as sex objects. Men are taught to see
anything on the opposite side of themselves as something sexual, and
I guess that includes gay men. It's crazy. But I think that's why
there's sometimes tension between straight and gay men. We've been
taught to be predators, and straight men don't always know what to do
with the idea of another man as something to be pursued or exploited
sexually.
It's true. I find that every time I encounter a straight man who
finds out I'm gay, the first thing he wonders is if I want to do him.
They're used to seeing a female and thinking about what it's like to
be in bed with her. It's ironic that straight society has such strong
opinions about something they don't really know about. I'm not going
to say I understand what it's like to be a gay male. That's not my
life experience. I can tell you what it's like to be in my shoes. And
I can be compassionate.
There's been quite a bit of speculation about the sexual orientation
of many of the members of boy bands, including you from time to time.
I'm sure there's someone at some tabloid right now writing that I'm
gay and that the whole thing with Britney was a smoke screen. That's
the way the media works.
But you've been pretty casual about it. Why?
Because I don't care. There's also been talk in the press about how
I've been some kind of playboy since Britney and I broke up. That's
not who I am either. I don't see any point of living my life a
certain way because of what the press may print. My life consists of
what I do in the studio, the people I meet, the people I respond to,
my family, my spirituality, and that's it. With every male who
becomes an icon, the media speculates whether they're gay. That's
ridiculous. If I was gay, that wouldn't be a big deal, so why would I
hide it?
It seems you're willing to play with the perceptions of your
sexuality as well. I'm thinking of the photo shot you did with Steven
Klein for Arena Homme earlier this year.
What we went for was sort of a Fight Club – Boogie Nights vibe. I
wanted to play a Dirk Diggler type of character, placed in a scenario
like the `70s and `80s where there was a lot of excess. In the end,
it came out like gay porn meets Fight Club.
Were you taken aback when you saw the pictures?
Not at all. When Steven and I sat down to talk about the concept for
the shoot, we went for the idea of me playing a suburban kid who's
thrown into all this excess; a period of time when things were wild –
an environment of porn and all kinds of craziness. It was a fun shoot
to do and a fun role for me to play. It was no big deal. When I heard
people speculate about the pictures, I just smirked to myself and
thought it was cool.
What about your cameo as a hairdresser in On The Line?
Lance [Bass, of *NSYNC, who produced and starred in the movie] wanted
me to make a cameo. I didn't want to play myself; that's lame. But I
said, if you let me do the ending credits, I'll make up something on
the spot. So Chris [Kirkpatrick, an *NSYNC member] and I decided to
play hair and makeup people. It was an inside joke that people in
Hollywood would get if they had a good sense of humor.
And how did you come to play Elton John in the "This Train" video?
David LaChapelle, who directed the video, asked me to do it. Like the
Arena shoot and the On The Line thing, it was an actor piece for me –
a chance to step out of myself.
You're playing a young Elton John in the video, and we see someone
who seems overwhelmed by fame, sexuality, etc. What did you draw on
within yourself to make the role believable?
The craziness of stardom is what I really related to. As far as who
Elton was at the time in terms of his sexuality, it wasn't something
he talked about at the time. So David and I decided that everything
should be understated in that regard. Mostly I tapped into the fact
that behind the glasses, he just wanted to be normal. I related to
that.
Let's talk about the power of music from another angle. You did the
charity single "What's Goin' On" with Bono last year. What drew you
to the project?
Originally, the project was for the kids in Africa who are dying from
AIDS illnesses. It was crazy timing in that we did it two weeks
before September 11. MTV snagged it and used it for that purpose too.
It wasn't the original intention of the track, but I think everyone
involved was happy to lend their voices to some positivity during a
dark time.
Was that record your first work relating to HIV and AIDS?
No. *NSYNC has a charity called Challenge for Children. We do a big
event every year to raise money and divide it among all kids of child-
related charities. That includes HIV-related charities for kids. We
raised $2 million this year.
Can music change the world?
Music can most definitely change the world, either through making a
strong, serious statement in your songs or by making music that makes
people happy. I'm making music that can take people away from their
troubles for a few minutes. I think there's value in that.
What do you think of artists like Eminem who seem to work in the
other direction by imposing harsh lyrics?
People are free to express themselves, and I don't have to agree with
every record that's made. Eminem's lyrics are harsh, but they're
designed to shock people and draw attention. It's like he's jumping
up and down, screaming to be noticed without realizing the power of
music. Personally, I don't take him as seriously as the rest of the
world does. I just don't see how you can take him seriously. He's
just so over-the-top.
But music made by haters can be pretty influential.
You don't have to take all music that's made and hold it close to
you. You can take it for what it's worth and discard it. I choose not
to hold his music close to me. I choose to discard it.
You work with a lot of hip-hop artists. What's your experience of
homophobia – or acceptance of homosexuality – in the world of rap and
hip-hop?
I don't allow negative people who hate around me if I can help it. So
I've mostly seen good, positive things among the people I've worked
with in hip-hop. I don't even consider the idea of being homophobic
around me. People who work with me know ahead of time that I don't
deal with any kind of negative energy around me.
What is it about your record that an average gay music fan would find
interesting or appealing?
The same thing that I hope heterosexual people, people of color, all
kinds of people will find interesting: the fact that it comes from
the heart. I'm not posing to attract certain people. I'm just Justin,
doing my thing as best I can – just like everyone else in the world.
Except that in my world people are cool with each other. Being
different is all good. |
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