Chris Kirkpatrick recalls scary memories with Eminem in Without Me: ‘Oh my god, it was so bad’

The *NSYNC singer thought the diss was about the whole band until his phone started ringing incessantly

Chris Kirkpatrick and Eminem

Chris Kirkpatrick knew boy band life meant sometimes being the butt of a joke.

But the *NSYNC member never expected one of the most popular rappers of the early 2000s to target him directly. However, that’s what happened in 2002 when Eminem released his single, “Without Me.”

“We did a show in Miami and we were coming back and I started getting all of these text messages, ‘Have you heard the new Eminem song? He makes fun of you in the Eminem song,’ ” Kirkpatrick, 53, recalls during his appearance in CW’s The ’90s Boy Band Boom.

The pop singer says he reasoned, “I love Eminem and *NSYNC rhymes with everything. *NSYNC, stink, you know. It’s really not that hard.”

“And they’re like, ‘No, no, no, you. Chris Kirkpatrick.’ And I’m like, ‘Chris Kirkpatrick? That doesn’t rhyme with anything,’ ” he continues.

“And as it was coming out of my mouth, I’m saying, ‘This is Eminem.’ And then I hear, ‘Get your ass kicked,’ and I’m like oh, yeah.. I guess it rhymes with that. That makes sense.”

He continues, “And at that moment, I was like, ‘What does this mean? Do I have beef now? Is this, are we beefing? Man, that sucks.’ ”

At a time where it became popular to poke fun at boy bands, Kirkpatrick says it gave the industry an opportunity to dismiss the success of the group, which also included JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass.

“A lot of that pop genre didn’t get that recognition we deserved. We were up for a couple of Grammys. The one that kills me the most was when we lost to Steely Dan for Best Vocal Performance on a Record,” he recalls.

“We strived on being in the studio way longer than we should have to make sure that every detail of every song, every part was perfect. It was before autotune. We had to sing it right. We had to make it exactly what it sounded like. It almost sounded fake, we put so much effort and work into these sounds.”

When it came down to it, Grammy voters determined, “They don’t have the credibility. They’re a boy band,” Kirkpatrick recalls.

“And that hurts because that’s, in our business, the Grammy was always the coveted award you won in recognition for what you do,” he explains. “The term boy band doesn’t sound like anything that has credibility or anything that’s got a basis in maturity, in rehearsal, in effort that we put into things. It comes out as dismissive.”

Related Posts

Disney sued the Oscars because of Snow White, Rachel Zegler was unjustly awarded in a scene about to fall to the edge of the abyss

Conan O’Brien has been tapped as the host of the 97th Academy Awards, and while O’Brien is a consummate performer and comedian and he’s hosted other awards shows like the…

Walt Disney is cruel! The career of the actress who voiced Snow White is almost over

Quick! Who directed the 1950 animated version of “Cinderella?” Did they direct any other movies? Who played the voice of Peter Pan in Disney’s 1953 film version?…

The Prince’s replacement in the 2025 Snow White Live-Action remake is no better than Rachel Zegler

Disney’s Snow White opted for a new male hero in place of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ original prince. Even though Disney replaced Snow White’s prince for the…

Rachel Zegler’s last dream about Snow White was cut short, causing Disney to make a heartbreaking decision

Snow White‘s box office projections are continuing to slip as its release approaches. The upcoming movie is a remake of the 1937 Disney musical, which was the…

Disney’s Snow White and Rachel Zegler just set a new record that may never be broken if THIS HAPPENS

Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White is about to set a record that might never be broken by any other movie. Based on the classic animated film, 2025’s Snow White will re-imagine…

Wicked Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the 2025 Oscars with a SPECIAL gift to fans

The musical opener kicked off with “Over the Rainbow” before segueing to “Home” from “The Wiz,” as well as “Defying Gravity.” The 2025 Oscars were holding space for two…