I do more videos and ideas, and concepts for show and stage and stuff. We feel like we have something, and now someone else recognizes it.” And that’s a good feeling.įATONE: I think Johnny said, “Do you guys write?” and Justin and JC were like, “We write a little bit,” and I never really wrote that much. He just took whatever was available, so he just stuck a bunch of mattresses against a wall, and that’s what we used - and it worked.įATONE: I remember, I’m like, “hang on a second” and they’re like, “What?” and I’m like, “The mattress is falling.”ĬHASEZ: Walking into Shaq’s place, I think the thing that felt good was, “OK, this is the first person that sees something. The office had a closet, so it was in a separate room, so you had soundproofing. He had, basically, his work room set up in what would be an office of a house. A new band with no budget, that’s what you gotta do.įATONE: We were literally recording “Sailing,” “Giddy Up,” a couple of songs in a closet.ĬHASEZ: We worked with a producer named Veit Renn and he was working out of a house. A lot of closets with mattresses on the wall - we’ve hit all of those. We’d always recorded in closets, just little studios here and there. It was exciting.īASS: Up until this point, we hadn’t recorded in a major studio. We saw the gold records, and we were just in awe.ĬHASEZ: It wasn’t an oversized room or anything - but he built a full-blown recording studio in his guest house at his mansion in Orlando. LANCE BASS: As a kid from Mississippi who had never really left the state, and as a 15-year-old huge Orlando Magic fan, walking into Shaquille O’Neal’s house - with the doors being so huge and everything - it was a real moment for me.ĬHRIS KIRKPATRICK: We didn’t get to meet him, but we saw he had that song with Fu Schnickens and all those. ( Laughs.) We used that demo to shop our deal. It was a very generous offer, and we took him up on it. We said we were a new group, and we were looking to put our demo together, and he offered his studio to us. This guy heard us sing the anthem, asked us who we were. We did, I think, four songs.ĬHASEZ: It was kind of our first break. JOEY FATONE: The very, very first time we recorded stuff, it was a demo - and we recorded at Shaquille O’Neal’s house, actually. JC CHASEZ: Back in the day, everyone imagined a grand, studio setup, but in today’s day and age, people are making records on tour buses and just about anywhere now.

“Walking Into Shaquille O’Neal’s House Was a Real Moment” Here, in their own words, is the history of NSYNC. Sharing stories of working with chain-smoking Swedish producers, recording demos in Shaquille O’Neal’s house, and agreeing to that fateful Disney Channel show, the guys detailed exactly how NSYNCcame together - and ultimately became established as one of the biggest boy bands of all time. In honor of the 20th anniversary of NSYNC’s debut album, Fatone, Bass, Chasez and Kirkpatrick took Billboard back to the beginning. 1 albums, countless classic hits, and coming April 30 of this year, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The set’s success kickstarted a career for the quintet that led to two more No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and selling 10 million copies in the United States alone. NSYNC mania ultimately ensued, with the album catapulting to No. But that summer, the guys performed on a Disney Channel concert special, and suddenly the tides turned. 82 on the Billboard 200, and “I Want You Back” wasn’t seeing the reaction it received overseas. on March 24, 1998.Ī slow burn at first, the album debuted at No. edition of the album, and released NSYNC in the U.S.

Initially releasing their first single “I Want You Back” in January 1998, NSYNC switched out a few tracks for a U.S. Upon gaining the attention of RCA A&R rep Vincent DeGiorgio, the guys were offered an American record deal with RCA in November 1997. “But I never felt like - and I still don’t to this day - I was ready or prepared about what I was about to get into.”Īfter releasing a European version of their debut LP in May 1997 (released on Trans Continental, owned by the band’s co-manager, Lou Pearlman), NSYNC became superstars in the international market - yet no one in their home country had a clue who they were. “I liked them so much immediately, it just felt like fate that we’d all come together,” Bass tells Billboard.

Pop nsync bet