For all of five minutes yesterday, it seemed as though Justin Timberlake was finally about to return to the music scene to reclaim his King of Pop crown.
In an interview with Digital Spy, producer Jim Beanz (Britney Spears, Katy Perry) claimed that the former NSync star was currently holed up in the studio working on the belated follow-up to 2006’s ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’:
“When I get back to the States I’m going to be helping out on Shock Value 3 with Timbaland and the Justin Timberlake project.
“It’s still in the early stages, but they have a lot of tracks. While I’ve been over here in the UK they’ve been working, so by the time I get back they’ll have a whole load of ideas and I’m going to have to catch up!”
About time too, most of us thought. Although he’s popped up sporadically on various tracks by the likes of Ciara, Esmee Denters and Madonna over the past few years, his last solo single was 2007’s ‘Lovestoned/I Think She Knows.‘
However, any excitement was short lived, as just hours later, his rep issued a statement confirming that the 31-year-old was merely contributing to one track on Timbaland’s new record and that he has no plans for an album of his own.
It did all sound a little too good to be true. Indeed, with Timberlake set to star in upcoming films directed by Clint Eastwood and The Coen Brothers, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be going back to the old day-job for quite some time yet.
