Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesFriday really doesn't get much better when you start it off with a new Justin Timberlake song. However, if you're in the same boat as us, you were ever so slightly disappointed to find out the new tune wasn't a country hit.
Well, worry not, friends.
The 35-year-old singer chatted with Carson Daly on 97.1 Amp Radio Friday and confirmed he is, in fact, working on a new album and has been digging into his Tennessee roots to do so.
"I don't know exactly when I'm going to put it out, but yeah, I'm definitely working on a new album," he revealed.
Of course, this should come as no surprise considering all the hints he's been dropping while in the studio, working with people like Pharrell, Timbaland and Little Big town (though the confirmation definitely gives us something to look forward to). But what's even more exciting is that he admits to the influence of his hometown while creating it.
"I think where I grew up in America has a lot of influence," he told Daly. "Growing up in Tennessee—very central of the country— Memphis is known as being the birthplace of rock and roll, but also the home of the blues, but Nashville's right down the street so there's a lot of country music."
In fact, when Daly suggested he could do a mixed album with different collaborations, from Drake to Chris Stapleton, J.T. confirmed that's exactly what he hopes to do.
"It's funny that you say that because you might be in my brain about certain types of collaborations coming up on my next album," he said.
However, before he gets to the new album, his main focus is the upcoming animated film Trolls for which he helped executive produce the soundtrack. "Can't Stop the Feeling" is the first single off the album.
"I'm not going to be shy about saying that working on this soundtrack has bled into working on some other stuff for myself," he explained. "I kind of had been talking with Max [Martin] about maybe getting back into the studio just to get creative and then this project came up and so we just kind of jumped on and tackled it together and ended up writing this, in my opinion, like a banger."
He decided he wanted the soundtrack to be just as exciting as the film itself and ended up enlisting the likes of Gwen Stefani and Ariana Grande to do so.
Overall, the film and the soundtrack have a deeper meaning to him on a more personal level, thanks to his 1-year-old son, Silas.
"I think it was kind of serendipitous in that way where having just had a son and going like, 'Wow! This is kind of cool!'" he explained. "But who knows? By the time he watches the movie, he'll probably be like, 'Dad! That's not cool!'"
As for the past year as a first-time daddy, J.T. said, "All I know is I don't know what the hell I did before… It's an extremely humbling experience, and I've never had more poop on [me]! I was talking with someone the other day and they were like, 'Well, I have a dog!' But imagine when you clean up your dog's poop: you roll in there with the heavy duty Bounty paper towels, and you stand like you've got a 10-foot pole away from it. I'm like, 'Dude, when you have a kid, you just get in there, man!'"