Singer and actor Justin Timberlake has revealed that he and his former NSYNC bandmate Joey Fatone once broke into the maximum-security prison known as Alcatraz.
The performer made the disclosure on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, during his time at The Ellen DeGeneres Show while playing a game of ‘Spill The Tea’.
Timberlake said that the break-in happened when they were still a band during a video shoot outside of San Francisco, directly across from the world-famous prison.
“So, we were shooting a video in the Redwoods outside of San Francisco and we ended up shooting this one scene on this pier directly across from Alcatraz. And at that time, I was, like, watching The Untouchables over and over again and I was obsessed with that fact that Al Capone had—was, you know, they put him in Alcatraz. And I said, ‘Who wants to go see Alcatraz with me?’ And Joey, who is usually game for anything, he was like, ‘I’ll go with you.'”
In order to reach Alcatraz, Timberlake revealed that he had to negotiate with the city’s fire department that was available for the duration of the shoot.
“They came up and [said], ‘Hey, can we take some pictures with you guys?'” he continued. “And Joey and I were like, ‘Sure. Would you take us to Alcatraz?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, sure!'”
Unfortunately for Justin and his then bandmate, neither of them had anticipated that they would need tickets to gain entrance to be part of the tour. So the Cry Me A River singer had to improvise.
“So, we get to the main gate and they’re like, ‘Tickets, please.’ I was, like, ‘The guy behind me has the tickets.’ So, we ended up sort of, like, sneaking in and getting the earphones and weaving our way into, like, one of the tour groups…and by the time we got halfway through and we had just gotten to Al Capone’s cell, I get, like a tap on the shoulder and they’re like, ‘Come with me.'”
Timberlake recalled saying then:
“Joe, we are gonna go down in history as the dumbest people ever. We got caught breaking into a prison.”
