*NSYNC recorded their first demo at basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal's home in Florida.
Marking the 20th anniversary of the release of their first album in the U.S., bandmates JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick recently sat down with Billboard to recall their crazy first months together as they went from zeros to heroes.
The quartet admit their speedy rise to the top in Europe before they became one of America's top boy bands was surreal at times, but none of their experiences could match the day they discover they'd be hanging out at Shaq's house.
"The very, very first time we recorded stuff, it was a demo - and we recorded at Shaquille O'Neal's house, actually," Fatone explians. "He had a recording studio in Orlando. We did, I think, four songs."
"As a kid from Mississippi, who had never really left the state, and as a 15-year-old huge Orlando Magic fan, walking into Shaquille O’Neal's house - with the doors being so huge and everything - it was a real moment for me," Bass adds.
"Up until this point, we hadn’t recorded in a major studio. We’d always record in closets, just little studios here and there. A lot of closets with mattresses on the wall - we’ve hit all of those. Real glamorous. A new band with no budget, that’s what you gotta do."
"We didn’t get to meet him (O'Neal)...," Kirkpatrick recalls. "We saw the gold records, and we were just in awe."
"He built a full-blown recording studio in his guest house at his mansion in Orlando," says JC. "It was exciting... Walking into Shaq’s place, I think the thing that felt good was, 'OK, this is the first person that sees something. They see what we see. We feel like we have something, and now someone else recognises it'. And that’s a good feeling."
The four-piece will reunite in Hollywood next month (30Apr18) when they are honoured with the 2,636th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's not clear if bandmate Justin Timberlake will be joining them at the ceremony.
