Justin Timberlake has said that his 2006 hit “What Goes Around… Comes Around” was not inspired by Britney Spears, despite longstanding speculation that the song was about his former partner.
Speaking on Complex’s “Re-Rank” show, Timberlake said the song originated with a personal story told to him by a friend, who gave him permission to use it.
“He was just going through it, and he was telling me what had happened, and said, ‘Do you mind if I write about this?’” Timberlake said. He recalled his friend responding: “Yeah, torch that bitch. What goes around comes around.”
Timberlake said he immediately recognised the potential in the phrase. “I was like, ‘I have to go, thank you.’ He was like, ‘What?’ I was like, ‘I got it.’”
He added that the song took him only about 20 minutes to write after the conversation.
The track was widely linked to Spears, with some people suggesting it was a follow-up to Timberlake’s 2002 song “Cry Me a River”. Timberlake has not, however, said whether Spears inspired that earlier song.
In his 2018 book, “Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me”, he described writing “Cry Me a River” after being hurt, saying: “I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. I wrote ‘Cry Me a River’ in two hours. I didn’t plan on writing it.”
More insight into Timberlake’s songwriting may emerge in his upcoming docuseries.
