Though there’s still more to undercover around Justin Timberlake‘s sixth album, Everything I Thought It Was, out March 15, there may be some inklings of his previous 2018 release, Man of the Woods, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and blended R&B, soul, and funk.
“I’m really excited about this album,” said Timberlake in a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “I think every artist probably says this, but it is my best work.”
In pieces, Timberlake is slowly revealing more about the 18-track Everything I Though It Was, which he co-produced with Louis Bell and Cirkut, from how a 1971 John Lennon song influenced one single, his writing spree around the album, the meaning behind the title, and more. Here are five things to know about Everything I Thought It Was.
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1. John Lennon and Donny Hathaway Inspired the Single “Selfish”
Timberlake admitted that John Lennon was part of the inspiration behind his first Everything I Thought It Was single, “Selfish.” In the song, which he co-wrote with Louis Bell, Theron Thomas, and Amy Allen, Timberlake sings from the perspective of a jealous man: So, if I get jealous / I can’t help it / I want every bit of you / I guess I’m selfish.
“Selfish” started coming together after Timberlake was hanging out one night with his musical director Adam Blackstone, who had these jazz nights in Los Angeles. Invited to sing on stage, Timberlake immediately thought about soul singer Donny Hathaway‘s 1972 cover of a Lennon song, “Jealous Guy.” The song was written by Lennon, co-produced by Roxy Music‘s Bryan Ferry, and released on Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine and
“He invited me to come down and he said ‘You want to come up and sing something?'” said Timberlake. “And I randomly threw out, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s do Donny Hathaway’s cover of ‘Jealous Guy’ by Lennon.”
[RELATED: 7 of John Lennon’s Favorite Songs]
He added, “So we were talking about the song itself and just breaking down the idea that you just don’t hear that from men often, that they would express an emotion that makes them vulnerable. And then growing up the way I grew up, you’re taught not to do that. It just felt like a really honest song. The lyrics just started to come out honestly. When I listened to the whole album, I felt like it’s probably, of all the songs on the album, production-wise, probably the most straightforward, and I don’t want to say simply because it’s complex within its simplicity to me.”
2. He Wrote 100 Songs for the Album
Timberlake revealed that he had been working on Everything I Thought It Was for four years, long enough that he ended up writing 100 songs for the album.
“I worked for a long time on this album and I ended up with 100 songs,” said Timberlake. “So narrowing them down to 18 was a thing.”
[RELATED: 9 Songs You Didn’t Know Justin Timberlake Wrote for Other Artists]
3. There’s Another Track Called “No Angels”
On Friday, January 19, Timberlake played an intimate show at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennesee, and sampled two songs from Everything I Thought It Was, including the single “Selfish.”
During his set, the DJ also played a small snippet of another song Timberlake called “No Angels.”
4. Timberlake Explained the Meaning Behind the Title ‘Everything I Thought It Was’
“I think there are moments that are incredibly honest, but also, there’s a lot of fucking fun on this album,” said Timberlake. He said these two sides helped steer him toward the title Everything I Though It Was.
“I think that’s where I came up with the album title, with ‘Everything I Thought It Was,'” he said. “I was playing it for people around me. They’re like, ‘Oh, this sounds like everything we know you for,’ and then another friend of mine was like, ‘Oh, this sounds like everything I thought I wanted from you.’ It was like that sort of phrase, in one way or another, was in the air, and I thought to myself about how some of the songs are more introspective and some of them are more what I think people know me for.”
[RELATED: A Look Back at Justin Timberlake’s Most Iconic ‘SNL’ Visits]
5. Benicio del Toro Narrates the Album Trailer
When he first revealed the new album on January 19, 2024, Timberlake shared a 30-second trailer for Everything I Thought It Was, narrated by actor Benicio del Toro.
Though both starred in the 2023 Grant Singer thriller Reptile—along with Alicia Silverstone and Michael Pitt—it’s unclear if del Toro has any further involvement with the album.
Photo: Courtesy of Apple Music
