All roads lead to Super Bowl week for Halftime headliner Justin Timberlake.
Beyond the high-profile gig, the Pop titan will also be releasing his fourth solo album ‘Man Of The Woods’ during said frame.
And it’s clear, he’s keen to launch the LP in a major way.
So much so that he’s secured the residence of late legend Prince for a super exclusive listening session.
Full story below…
According to Star Tribune, JT will host the first playback for his project at the Purple one’s home – Paisley Park – in partnership with American Express.
Situated in Minneapolis (the location of this year’s Super Bowl), the iconic residence will play host to the session on February 1st – a day before the album arrives at retail. And three days before the Halftime Show.
Tickets, which were priced at $80, disappeared almost as fast as they went on sale – despite arriving as a surprise for AmEx cardholders.
It’s expected that the presentation will take place at Paisley Park’s famed Soundstage, which can accommodate 1,800 and regular played host to Prince’s jam session for fans.
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The listening session is sure to raise eyebrows given Prince and Justin’s interesting history.
Indeed, while the ‘Filthy’ singer has been uber endorsing of the legend – especially after his death in 2016 – they have in fact traded subtle jabs at one another.
For, when questioned about JT’s single ‘SexyBack’ and it’s implied suggestion that it was reviving something, Prince (in trademark form) clapped back with the following in an interview:
“For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!”
Said line clearly found its way to Timberlake, who sung the following lines on Timbaland + Nelly Furtado collaboration ‘Give It To Me’ that same year:
“I saw you tryin’ to act cute on TV, ‘Just let me clear the air’/ We missed you on the charts last week/ Damn, that’s right, you wasn’t there/ Now if sexy never left, then why is everybody on my sh–?/ Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t come up with it.”
Things that make you go hmmm.