Joey Fatone says he was ‘blindsided’ when Justin Timberlake left NSYNC to go solo

Fatone said he thought Timberlake would rejoin and NSYNC would get back together after.

Joey Fatone always thought the band would get back together.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Entertainment, the singer admitted he was “blindsided” after Justin Timberlake left NSYNC in 2002 to go solo, and never came back.

“I was not blindsided by [NSYNC’s breakup],” Fatone told the outlet. “I was more blindsided as far as [Justin] coming out with music and not knowing that he was going to go and do an actual album/tour thing.”

The popular boy band, which also consisted of Lance Bass, JC Chasez, and Chris Kirkpatrick, had just released what would become their final album Celebrity in 2001 to great success (it debuted at No. 1 on US Billboard 200 chart), when Timberlake left to pursue his solo career, starting with his first album Justified in 2002.

Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone. SGranitz/WireImage

Fatone recalled thinking at the time, “It was more of, ‘Hey, I’m going to do some music, and then we’ll get back together.’ That’s what that was.” Still, Fatone said he doesn’t resent or blame Timberlake. “It wasn’t him — it was the record company. If it was him, then I’d understand it. When you’re younger, you think it’s that person. But then you look at the whole bigger scheme of things, and you go, ‘Oh, that’s why I wasn’t there for that.’ That’s the business. ‘OK, I get it.'”

“We thought he was just going to go out and just come back after the [Justified] tour,” he continued. “I was like, ‘OK.’ But then when he went on tour and then things started going, I was like, ‘All right, I’ll go do Broadway.’ That’s when I did Broadway. I started doing Dancing With the Stars. I started hosting TV shows and doing my own thing, and that was what led me.”

Fatone concluded, “That’s the beautiful part about it: My career and my life led me somewhere else, and I’m good and I’m happy with it.”

Fatone’s walk down memory lane comes on the heels of the much-publicized news that the iconic boy band had reunited to record new music for the first time in 20 years, with the single “Better Place,” which is set to be featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming DreamWorks Animation film Trolls Band Together.