Justin Timberlake Says Concert Audience Once Threw Bottles Of Urine At Him

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake has plenty of concert memories, but this one is for the books.

Roughly a year after he went solo, following his successful run with boy band NSYNC, he appeared at a SARS benefit concert in Toronto, Canada. The 2003 event featured heavy hitters like The Rolling Stones and AC/DC. Unfortunately for Justin Timberlake, the crowd made it clear it wasn’t here for him performing his pop hits.

He said on “The Graham Norton Show” that the unruly audience went as far as throwing bottles full of urine at him to show their dissatisfaction. He confessed that he knew something was up before he went on stage, but had to find out the hard way what it was.

“I remember saying to the band before we went on stage, ‘I don’t think this is going to go well.’ But little did I know, I had no idea how bad it was going to go.” 

He continued,

“We came on stage and all of a sudden from the first two rows of probably, I think this festival housed half a million people, so that was crazy. But all of a sudden, bottles of urine were then thrown on the stage… It wasn’t always good times for me, you guys.”

While he’s gone on to win Grammy Awards and make his mark in the music industry, he revealed,

 “I still have… I still have a lot of trauma from this incident.”

And in true JT form, he refused to give up, even after the concert runners said he could come off stage.

“I was like, ‘No man, I’m staying out here, we’re doing this!’”

Still, things went from bad worse.

“At the first song, I was at the mic and moving around and singing at the same time. I was kind of impressed with myself. Then the second song was ‘Senorita … I play a Rhodes electric piano on that song. So then, all of a sudden I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, I’m immobile!’”

He joked about a key lesson he learned.

“After that song either one of two things happened: Either they ran out of nerve because they knew I was going to stay there, or they ran out of urine so … kids … be tenacious!”

What do you think about Justin Timberlake’s experience? Tell us in the comments!