Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Twenty years ago this month,*NSYNCreleased theirhistory-making second albumNo Strings Attached.
I knew the Ariana sample was happening because we have to approve them.
We just had no idea what it was gonna sound like.
It was so sexy.
The fact she used a sample from my favorite song makes me love her even more!
Chris Kirkpatrick:Its Gonna Be Me.
Once we got to perform the song and rehearse choreography it was so much fun to do.
The music video was all crazy puppetry.
Nine hours of makeup.
It was a 24-hour shoot and we didnt sleep.
Worst *NSYNC Song
Lance:Ah theres so many contenders!
We were just playing around with different styles and songs we thought would be cool.
We played around with a little techno in the late 90s and it was never good.
We performed it on our first tour and I never felt right singing it.
I dont even think it made it to the first American album.
Chris:Theres a song called Riddle thats absolutely horrible.
It was on the European album this big European dance song.
We did it for the record label, not for us.
It didnt sit well with us.
It had no harmonies.
Best Choreography
Lance:One of my favorites to perform was Bye Bye Bye.
Any time a song has an iconic dance move in it like that its a beast.
When I joined the group I was not a dancer.
The other guys were incredible dancers.
I was from a show-tune world and we were all about spirit fingers.
So it was a lot of work for me.
You had to adapt quickly; there was no other option.
Chris: My favorite routines were for awards shows.
For the 2000 MTV Awards we had TV screens for Bye Bye Bye.
That was really fun.
One of my favorite choreographers was Marty [Kudelka].
He did Girlfriend and the last tour, and he had this different style that we hadnt been doing.
It was way more groovy and so much more smooth.
It was the hardest for me to pick up even though it seemed like the simplest.
And we were supposed to be perfectly in sync.
We had another one where we worked with staffs for the opening of one of our tours.
We came out like Blue Man Group these neon-looking people with these neon staffs.
And there was a part where we all tossed the staffs to each other.
Best Dancer
Lance: I love how JC moves.
Hes such an incredible dancer and he can pick it up in two seconds.
Joeys great at picking up things.
Thats how Joey got in *NSYNC!
Chris:JC started working on back handsprings.
Justin was a great dancer.
Joeys got moves that are really good, and Lance did cool stuff.
It would be a toss-up between Justin and JC.
Best Video Shoot
Lance:Its hard to pick one that was the most fun.
Most of them were very boring.
Some I definitely wanna forget!
I loved doing the Its Gonna Be Me shoot but we spent way too many hours in makeup.
Chris Kirkpatrick sat me down and said, Hey dude are you gay?
No one had ever asked me that.
I was super in the closet and way too young to even know or care what was happening.
But I remember getting so freaked out on that set because he caught me so off guard.
I said, No, what are you talking about?
I wasnt even telling myself.
I definitely wasnt gonna tell Chris.
Worst Video Shoot
Lance:The video for Pop was the hardest by far.
It got to us.
We all voiced our concerns at that point about being overworked.
We werent kids saying yes, well do everything you ask.
We wanted to start looking out for ourselves and our health.
I havent seen the Pop video in years.
The one I see the most is Bye Bye Bye because any bar you go into thats playing.
If a DJ sees me in a bar then they immediately play an *NSYNC song.
Chris:I had a tantrum at the Pop shoot.
I wanted to dance with girls.
Best Outfit
Chris: For tour we were really hands on with everything.
I thought it was really cool.
No wonder we were friends with those guys.
One of our first outfits were these oversized beekeeper outfits that were all white.
We went go-kart riding and they gave us free go-kart helmets.
When we opened up for Janet Jackson on the Velvet Rope tour those outfits were pretty special.
Some of them are hanging up in Hard Rock these crushed velvet Asian inspired Kimono outfits.
Each of us had our own color.
We all had our own favorite colors.
JC was always blue.
Joey was always red.
Justin always had to be baby blue.
Best Hair
Lance:We stood out with our hair.
The best era for all of us was probably reallyNo Strings Attached.
Worst Hair
Lance:When I joined the group I came straight from Mississippi.
I did not know a thing about getting a haircut.
I had the typical bowl cut with long shaggy hair, kinda gross.
So they gave me this combover and also dyed my hair.
They tried getting it blond but it was just orange.
So the first two months I just had this greasy orange combover hair.
Later I got the frosted tips.
You know once I discovered frosted tips I never went back!
Chris:Are you really askingmeabout hair moments right now?
Honestly the best and worst moments in *NSYNC hair were mine; I got both ends covered.
I started out with the braids and it became a thing and then I got over it.
I thought it was different.
Something that nobody else was doing.
It made me stand out.
But sometimes … thats not always a good thing.
Every artist dreams of being that top artist.
To do that was so overwhelming, knowing how hard it took us to get there.
It was a beautiful moment.
Chris:The success.
No matter how tired we got we were all there to pick each other up.
I put this band together.
We were all friends.
We fight like brothers and we love each other like brothers.
Its crazy after all this time that were still all so close.
We still have grudges against each other.
