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Watch An 11-Year-Old Justin Timberlake Sing Alan Jackson’s “Love’s Got A Hold On You” Way Back In 1992
To the time machine we go…
Way, way back in 1992, Justin Timberlake appeared on Star Search, showing off the twang, dance moves, cowboy hat, and love of country music. And what song did he sing? Alan Jackson’s “Love’s Got a Hold on You” from his phenomenal Don’t Rock the Jukebox album. Written by Carson Chamberlain and Keith Stegall, “Love’s Got A Hold On You” was the fifth single released from the album as well as his fifth career #1 single.
Of course, the Tennessee native would go on to join the boy band N’SYNC a handful of years later, and have a wildly successful career as a pop star. He’s also starred in a number of movies, has worked as a producer, is a co-owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, and has opened a few restaurants including the Twelve Thirty Club in downtown Nashville. But much as JT has always been known as a pop and R&B singer, his Tennessee roots have been on display a number of times in his career, well after this clip from Star Search.
His most notable country crossover moment came in 2015 when he performed “Tennessee Whiskey” with Chris Stapleton at the CMA Awards. The duet, paired with a performance of Timberlake’s own “Drink You Away,” was an absolute showstopper that went on to spark Stapleton’s mainstream success. Chris was a successful songwriter ahead of that performance, but following that duet, his debut solo album Traveller, shot up the charts, and has essentially stayed there ever since. Chris went on to win dozens of awards, release a handful of hit records and become one of the most sought-after collaborators in all of music. That moment single-handedly kicked off the decline of the “Bro Country” era in country music, a time that we’d probably all like to forget.
Timberlake saw what happened with Chris, and leaned into it with his own 2018 album, Man of the Woods, which many initially thought would be a country album. And while it certainly leaned into a more earthy, country-influenced aesthetic, especially on tracks like “Say Something” (also featuring Stapleton), it was far from a true country music project. While he’s never gone full country, Timberlake has shown a genuine respect for the genre, and fans still speculate about a possible future country project. We’ll see…
In the meantime, enjoy the throwback.
Chris Stapleton & Justin Timberlake’s CMA Awards Duet
Remember how bad things were in country music back in 2015? A quick look at the charts and you’ll notice songs like Sam Hunt’s “House Party,” “Sun Daze” by Florida Georgia Line, “Kick the Dust Up” from Luke Bryan and “Make Me Wanna” by Thomas Rhett.
We were smack dab in the middle of bro country hell. Things were looking bleak…
But on November 4, 2015, one performance from the CMA Awards seemingly stopped the bro-country train in its tracks and began the long, slow turnaround for country music. And it was all thanks to Chris Stapleton – and, ironically, Justin Timberlake. Chris was already well-known in the country music community. Writing songs for artists like Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, and more, everybody in Nashville knew Chris Stapleton was the real deal. Dierks Bentley even called him “probably the best singer in the world,” all the way back in 2010.
But the time of the 49th Annual CMA Awards, Chris Stapleton was still relatively unknown in the mainstream.
He released his stunning debut solo album Traveller in May of 2015, and while it did generate some good buzz out of the gate, it fell off the Billboard 200 albums chart by September. But it was enough to earn Chris a trip to the CMA Awards, where he was nominated for Album of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and Male Vocalist of the Year. He won all three.
But then, he took the stage alongside pop superstar (and Tennessee native) Justin Timberlake to perform “Tennessee Whiskey,” along with Timberlake’s “Drink You Away,” and they blew the roof off. The world had finally been exposed to the magic of Chris Stapleton.
Traveller’s sales shot up over 6,000% and Chris has been on a rocket to the moon ever since. In fact, to this day, you can still find Traveller somewhere on the country album sales chart at any given time. And whenever there’s a lull in popular new music, or Chris hasn’t released an album for a while, you can probably find it near the top. It’s absolutely insane for an album to have that much sustained success for such a long period of time.
It was arguably the most influential country album of the decade, because it turned the tide for the entire genre. While we were neck deep in the pits of bro-country garbage, it set off a chain reaction that ultimately started to swing the pendulum back towards traditional country music.
Now here we are seven years later, and we not only have the emergence of neo-traditional artists like Luke Combs, Midland, Jon Pardi, Ashley McBryde, Lainey Wilson, Carly Pearce, and Cody Johnson in the mainstream, but they’re having a ton of success. And we have a new wave of acts like Zach Top, Jake Worthington, Hailey Whitters, Randall King and more
And the turning point was right here, almost a decade ago…. funny how time flies.
The post Watch An 11-Year-Old Justin Timberlake Sing Alan Jackson’s “Love’s Got A Hold On You” Way Back In 1992 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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