Timberlake Says 2006 Hit Drew on a Friend’s Experience

Justin Timberlake said his 2006 hit “What Goes Around...Comes Around” was inspired by a friend’s relationship experience, not his own, addressing longstanding speculation that the song was about his former girlfriend Britney Spears. He described the explanation during an interview for Complex’s ReRank series.

Timberlake said his friend told him about a painful relationship experience and gave him permission to use it as material. He recalled asking whether he could write about what had happened. According to Timberlake, the idea for the song came to him after that conversation.

He said the track took roughly 20 minutes to write and that the lyrics came quickly. Timberlake also said he would rank it among the top two songs of his career. The interview included his account of the song’s development and its accompanying music video, which he said was 10 minutes long.

Released in 2006 as the third single from his album “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” the song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, according to reports. Its lyrics describe a relationship ending amid infidelity, a theme that helped fuel speculation about its subject.