Yesterday afternoon, Beats 1 teased Zane Lowe's conversation with Justin Timberlake ahead of the release of Man of the Woods with segments on both his last Super Bowl performance and why he hasn't been working with Pharrell. Today, after the release of the video for the Pharrell-assisted single "Supplies," we get to peer into their full conversation, which premiered on Beats 1 at 1PM.
Around 11 minutes into their discussion, Zane Lowe brings up Justin Timberlake being a father (he has a son, Silas, with his wife, Jessica Biel, who was born in April of 2015). Justin admits the reason he took so long since his last album (The 20/20 Experience, the two-parter which dropped in 2013) was to spend some time with his son, and agrees with Zane about Man of the Woods being the "closest" we get to the real Justin.
"It's definitely the most introspective record I've made," Timberlake says. "I think every album that I've done before that was about aspiration, and how I can pay homage to my influences," going into about how songs like "Suit & Tie" is about aspiring to maintain a certain level of class. "When you have kids, all of the sudden you're faced with your own childhood, good and bad, and 'am I going to completely mess this kid up?' I feel like the success of parenthood is feeling of 'I failed all day today, but I get to wake up tomorrow and do it again,' and hopefully, they turn out to be a good human being."
After diving into the situation with why he wasn't able to work with Pharrell, he explained how a conversation with Pharrell about his son turned into the title of the album. "It all worked out in a way," Justin begins (around the 18:08 mark), "that we just got back together, Pharrell and I, and then obviously Chad came in as well, but a lot of discussion. Then we were talking about 'where do we start,' and we were talking about parenthood, and he said, 'What's your son's name?' And I said 'Silas, I named him after my grandfather, my great-grandfather,'" calling his grandfather both "tough as nails" and a father figure after his parents' divorce.
"He said to me," Justin continued, "'what does your son's name mean?' And I was like, 'You know, I've never, I don't know.'" This prompted Timberlake to Google "meaning of the name Silas," to which he says he found "of Latin origin, meaning 'man of the woods.' And I said 'it means man of the woods.' How serendipitous that my last name is Timberlake, what does that mean?" Timberlake says Pharrel told him that'd be a really good name for a song, to which Timberlake said it'd be a good name for an album, and they ended up creating the song "Man of the Woods."
Throughout the interview, Timberlake questions how long he might be able to tour, make music, and do movies, the tour prep, and more. Check out the full conversation above.
