Justin Timberlake - Hindsight: All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me

From the beginning, Rachael Yarbrough has been my championalways there to lend a trusted ear and eye, with all her heart.

Rachael, we have known each other through eras. We have seen one another through so many changes and so much growth. I will always appreciate what you have given me and what you have taught me, and I will always believe in you as much as you have believed in me.

I couldnt have written this piece of my life and made it so meaningful without the help of my great friend and producer on this project, Sandra Bark.

Sandra, you are a beautiful soul, and I am in awe of your gift. I hope you always look back at this book and the time we shared together with as much reverence as I do.

I forever will.

There is my childhood in Memphis, and that richness. There are the things I would have liked to have asked my grandfather. There is the music and the movies. The moments when an idea for a song just hits, when I put myself on the line, when I take a creative risk. There is my family, the one I came from, and the one I am creating. And there is the open green of the fairway, because thats how I spend my free time, playing golf, the times I just go off and hit balls for an hour and a half.

I called this book Hindsight because it is a long look backward and a deep look inward into everything I am, and how those things connect to where I came from, who I am now, and who I hope to become. Its how it feels when Im onstage, and youre seeing me, and Im seeing you. Its wanting to be more present, more soulful, and more humble. Its the ways being a father changed things, and wondering how my son will see me and see himself as he grows.

Ten years ago, I couldnt have written this book. Ten years ago, everything was about forward movement. About taking risks. About trying new things. I didnt look behind me. I didnt care about what was behind me. I cared only about what lay ahead.

Now Im older. Ive made more music. Im a father. Im still doing new things, taking creative risks. I have space within myself to look back, to see where I was: to understand what I absorbed when I was a child forming my earliest impressions about the world; to appreciate what I was learning as I became a man; and to reflect on the beliefs and values I am bringing with me as I move into the future.

What I understand now is that there isnt just one thing that I am. There isnt just one thing that I will become.

Every time I make an album, I always want it to sound at least slightly different from the last. I want to explore different genres, and I want to explore different parts of myself. What you hear in my music may not be what you would expect from me, and it may not even be what I ever expected to create myself. But when you hear it, youll get it; just like when I felt it, I got it.

Thats what happens when you forget about labels and look into yourself and make music you love. That was something I had to learn.

The mystery of loving is Gods sweetest secret.

Jalal al-Din Rumi
from Desire and the Importance of Failing, thirteenth century

Connections are all around us, and they are inside of us. They inspire and they illuminate. They show us who we are and who we want to be. Thats why we make art and thats why we go see it. When we watch, when we listen, were not getting away from the world. Were actually digging in. You cant help the fact that a song sounds like something you heard when you were a kid, or that you like it and you want more of it. You cant help the fact that a character in a movie reminds you of yourself, or one of your best friends. Our senses and our memories are entangled. Thats why I love entertainment, in all forms: its connection disguised as escapism. Thats why we listen to music. Thats why we go to a movie, a play, or an art gallery. These experiences touch something within us, sending us back, validating who we are, and showing us something true about ourselves.

W HEN I THINK of Memphis, I think of the people and the food and the heat and the humidity. Mostly, I think of the music.

Memphis isnt an easy place to describe. Its a city that is not quite like any other. Its the capital of the blues. It is its own world, with its own way of life and its own sound, and that sound holds so many sounds within in it, just like Memphis holds so many kinds of people in it. Those are the sounds that shaped me and shaped my music.

There are different sides to Memphis.

Its very Southern, and theres not a lot of money there compared to other big cities in the United States, but theres a lot of local pride. Thats what Im singing about in Livin Off the Land, off Man of the Woods, the album I was writing and recording while I was writing this book.

We lived just outside the city, in Shelby Forest, where it was a little more rural. There was a creek and some woods behind my best friend, Traces, house, and wed run around and play back there. Or everybody would get together and play basketball in someones driveway. There were a lot of girls on my block, and they all had blonde hair, except for one. She was three years older than me, and she wore Jordans, and she played basketball. I was obsessed with her. Thats one part of Memphis.

If youre from Memphis, youre proud to be from Memphis. I know I am. Growing up that way was a positive experience for me. Memphis is a part of me and a part of my family and a part of my music. It was the backdrop for all the sounds and sights around me when I was a child, learning what the world was, figuring out what I could be. Who I could be. And the music was all around me.

The first time I held a guitar, I was very young. I remember my grandfather, my moms dad, putting his Gibson in my hand and teaching me a G chord.

In Tennessee, acoustic was everything.

***

Stax Records was in Memphis, in an old movie theater on East McLemore Avenue. That label established a sound for Memphis, a particular kind of soul that is so intrinsic to my city. Hi Records was also in Memphis, and they put out Al Green, who was one of the voices that really influenced me as a kid. Another old movie theater on South Lauderdale Street became the Royal Recording Studio, where Al Green recorded Lets Stay Together.

I loved listening to songs like Lets Stay Together and Love and Happiness. When I found out that guy lived down the street, you can imagine the look on my faceWait, where? Weve driven by his house! Because you didnt have any idea he lived there when you went by.

Years later, in 2003, I went back home to Memphis to film Justin Timberlake Down Home in Memphis (yes, its a super creative title), a concert special at the New Daisy Theatre, a famous club on Beale Street. When the producers asked me who I would choose if I could pick anyone I wanted to come and sing with me, the answer was obvious: the idol who lived near me when I was growing up, the guy whose truck I used to see parked outside the general store, one of the musicians whose voice helped define the sound of Memphis: Reverend Al Green.