Timberlake: Anger flowed into ‘River’
Justin Timberlake only needed a couple hours to write one of the biggest — and most personal — songs of his career. The pop star revealed he churned out “Cry Me a River,” the breakup ballad widely believed to be about Britney Spears, extremely quickly. “I’ve been scorned. I’ve been (ticked) off. I wrote ‘Cry Me a River’ in two hours. I didn’t plan on writing it,” Timberlake writes in his new book, “Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me,” according to People. “The feelings I had were so strong that I had to write it, and I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and, hopefully, relate to it,” Timberlake said. “People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.” The former NSYNC vocalist does not identify the subject of the jaded track in the book. He released the song in November 2002, several months after he and Spears called it quits. The popular song features bitter lyrics such as, “The bridges were burned/Now it’s your turn, to cry.” The source of Timberlake’s pain in the “Cry Me a River” music video, meanwhile, is a blond woman who resembles Spears. Timberlake and the song’s producer, Timbaland, seemed to confirm the song is about Spears during an edition of “E! True Hollywood Story” that aired in 2011. In the special, the producer says Timberlake was furious after seeing Spears speak about him at one of her concerts. “I was on a phone call that was not the most enjoyable phone call,” Timberlake recalled on the show. “I walked into the studio and (Timbaland) could tell I was visibly angry.” The song netted Timberlake a Grammy — for best male pop vocal performance — in 2004. Timberlake, 37, began dating Jessica Biel in 2007 and has been married to the actress since 2012. They have a 3-year-old son together named Silas.