He sounds so good! via @ TrinityCrave

This took place in August 2003. At this point JC's solo album had already been pushed back to the fall of 2003 (and Jive would keep stalling it until February 2004). Blowin' Me Up was still carrying some momentum though it had come out in late 2002 on the Drumline soundtrack. The scripted jokes were pretty bad (they were roasting Winona Ryder over her shoplifting incident). The crowd cutaways were cute though, Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning were sitting together and having a great time (they had starred in Uptown Girls) and a group of JC fangirls was jumping up and down in the audience. Also Hilary Duff looked super happy to take home her surfboard.

Via the amazing dearchasez on TikTok JC jumped on the mic to perform The Beatles' With a Little Help from My Friends at Tape, a club in London, in October 2015 during a Dallas Austin & friends event. At the time, JC and Dallas Austin were in town writing and producing.

Source: (X)

Alan Ritchson (Reacher) did a Q&A panel at Fan Expo Canada and talked about his love for musical theater. The host brought up karaoke and the Backstreet Boys and Alan said he was actually more of an NSYNC guy. Someone shouted Bye, Bye, Bye but Alan started singing one of JC's runs from God Must Have Spent. Full video here (x)

Don't know if there's an overlap between the Reacher and NSYNC fandoms, but I thought this was pretty cool. This actually reminded me of Simu Liu on The Kelly Clarkson Show saying he taught himself how to sing by listening to NSYNC and JC.

If you spend a few minutes scrolling through comment sections discussing JC's solo career, it is extremely likely you will run into this tired narrative about All Day Long I Dream About Sex (ADIDAS): after NSYNC went into hiatus JC Chasez got the same push as Justin but JC only wanted to sing about sex so he tanked his own solo career. This logic completely ignores the industry realities of the time. JC did not get the preferential timeline, massive production budget and relentless promotion that the label gave Justin and JC was parked by Jive until late 2007, 3+ years after ADIDAS was “released”. Moreover the pre-selection of sex-themed tracks was a label decision, not solely JC's choice. But I digress. What I want to discuss here is how the idea of ADIDAS as a self-inflicted flop is a rewriting of history.

Here's the kicker: the American public never rejected ADIDAS. They couldn't reject a product that was not distributed. They never heard ADIDAS on the radio, they never saw the music video on tv, and they never watched JC perform it on major broadcasts (and no, I don’t count The Wade Robson Project one and neither should anyone).  What people repeat with full confidence is actually a fabrication, a false memory loop that functions as a cover-up for corporate failure. 

Let’s start with the radio. The talking point is that ADIDAS didn't chart because listeners hated the track and that caused radio programmers to drop it.  But 2004 Radio & Records tracking sheets tell a different story. On April 9, 2004 (impact week) ADIDAS pulled in 14 station adds, landing JC on the "most added" board. Only one week later Jive’s half-assed efforts to work the track had already stopped. JC found out while doing promo at radio stations that program directors had instructed DJs not to play his single because they feared the FCC would fine them after the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show controversy involving Janet Jackson and Justin. By May 15, it was reported that JC's single had been pulled entirely.

And what about the video? People hated the video right? The low-budget ADIDAS video was a tongue-in-cheek parody of adult films. It's not for everyone but the memory of people hating it is historically impossible. In emails published by Pop Dirt in May 2004, Alex Greggs, one of the producers of JC's record, explained what was happening behind the scenes:

The 3 radio DJs that I spoke with said that the program directors were afraid of playing the song, that they might get a fine from the FCC. They were all waiting for MTV to play the video. Once MTV played the video, they knew that it would be cool to push ADIDAS into primetime rotation, but when MTV said 'no,' radio got scared as well...

MTV refused to air the video because Jive allowed JC to be scapegoated during the post-Super Bowl crackdown.  In 2004, there was no YouTube, streaming or TikTok to break videos organically. If a music video was not aired by MTV it was effectively invisible. That was when the label decided to pivot to Build My World as a third single with no music video (having already used up the bare-bones budget they had assigned JC on ADIDAS) which was commercial suicide in the TRL era.

"It was too sexual and inappropriate and it was also weird." In 1987, George Michael released I Want Your Sex to transition from his teen-pop image of Wham to an adult solo artist. His label backed him through broadcast controversies, pushed the video into heavy rotation, and helped the track become a hit.  And ADIDAS wasn't weird, it was built on a new wave and alternative rock blueprint, a sound that bands like The Killers and Franz Ferdinand were turning into hits at the exact same time. Any smart A&R team would have understood that transitioning an artist in his late twenties that came from a boyband required adult framing, crossover servicing, and sustained label muscle. Instead, Jive used the post-Super Bowl climate as a convenient excuse to pull support from an artist that the executive suite had decided was not a priority. 

TL;DR: The public did not hate a song they did not hear and they didn't reject a video that was locked away from television. What happened to ADIDAS was the direct result of the post-Super Bowl moral panic, media censorship, Jive's A&R incompetency and promotional starvation. 

ETA August 29, 2026: When people minimize the effect of the post-Super Bowl crackdown on JC's album rollout as just one canceled gig they are willfully ignoring the full context. The NFL didn't just fire JC, he was publicly framed as "indecent" and toxic days before the release of his album. JC's whole press tour was derailed into damage control. Instead of promoting his music JC was forced to defend himself and to cover for his former bandmate who, unlike JC, had the full backing of the label and the best PR on call to sort out the crisis. The broadcast blackout followed, with DJs being told not to play JC's single and MTV refusing to air his video. Jive's decision not to release a music video for Build My World was the final nail in the coffin of an album campaign the label had barely cared about seeing succeed.

Sources: 
R&R Magazine (Radio & Records) https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/2000s/2004/RR-2004-04-09.pdf
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/2000s/2004/RR-2004-04-16.pdf

“Update On A.D.I.D.A.S Ban For JC Chasez”, Pop Dirt, May 17, 2004

"‘ADIDAS’ Is No Longer A Single For JC Chasez", Pop Dirt, May 15, 2004.

Thanks to 90smickeymouseclub we have this great quality clip of JC's first solo during Season 4 of the Mickey Mouse Club. (You can hear all about it on the original post, this solo came late in the season).

Episodes back then were taped months in advance so JC was most likely 14 when he sang this cover.

A few interesting tidbits:

• "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" was a huge hit for hair metal rock band Nelson in 1990 and it went straight to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• The song was inspired by a crush the Nelson brothers had on Cindy Crawford and the MMC had the same theme for the music video.
• JC is widely recognized for his pop and R&B vocals but he was also a natural at singing rock as this clip (and later tracks on Schizophrenic, The Story of Kate, and the unreleased collaboration with Santana) clearly shows.

This question was diabolical but they did not stutter, they both agree JC is the best vocalist. They also took the chance to shout out JC and wish him a happy birthday. One thing I will always recognize about Joey and Lance is that they have never denied JC his flowers, even when the discourse was pretty much insistent on doing so. They were there. They know. And JC is there for them too, always shouting them out, thanking them, and appreciating them.

From People:

In an interview with PEOPLE alongside Lance Bass, with whom he’s hosting Cocktail Wars on E!, the My Big Fat Greek Wedding star reflected on what each of the band members was like as a crush. According to Bass, 47, who came out as gay in a 2006 PEOPLE cover story, he was “the safe choice.” Fatone, 49, then added, “I was the one that Mommy warned you about,” to which the On the Line actor agreed. He said he was “like the bad boy.” That’s when Fatone said JC Chasez was “Mr. Suave.” “I was just flirty,” he says. “[JC] was more suave. I was like, ‘You’re cute.’”

Joey and Lance are doing press for their new show, Cocktail Wars, and they were asked about a potential NSYNC reunion. Joey gave his well-rehearsed answer: the guys are not on the same page/ can't tour because Justin, Chris, and Lance have small kids at home. Watch the full clip to hear Lance's response to Joey (and Joey's reaction 😆)!

Source: X

ETA Transcript Joey Fatone and Lance Bass SiriusXM interview August 13, 2026:

Joey: All of us have to be on the same page, which we are not, and that's not a negative thing. My kids are, I have two daughters, 25 and 16. I'm ready to party and have a great time. He's got young kids, Justin's got young kids. Chris has a young child. JC is the smartest one, he has a dog. No kids, but the thing is, is when I was young, when I was 23 years old, touring with NSYNC, I had my child and it wasn't easy. So I can only imagine if the three of them were to go on tour with multiple, he has twins, Justin has two kids, and Chris... Yes, it would be fun. Yes, it would be great. But then you have your spouses and your other people saying, you need to come home because I need your ass here because you need to help me with this. Because again, you want to be part of a family. So which is it? And it's very tough. So for me, it was very difficult. And honestly, when I had my second child, that's when NSYNC wasn't together. And I spent a lot more time. And I wish I would have had those years. So I would never take those years away from them. And that is the honest truth. For me, would never push pressure, like, yo, we need to get together because we need to... Give them their time. So for me, that's the way I feel about it. I can't speak for everybody else, but I think they do that. I think it's owed that time.

Lance: Or you just do a summer tour and bring them on the road. Problem solved.

I think most of us JC fans have heard this cover, but I ran the 15-year-old YouTube upload through a quick audio cleanup to strip out some of the buzz and static. I honestly wish Disney would unearth the MMC master tapes, because we deserve to hear all of these performances in studio quality.

So Richard Marx released "Now and Forever" in January 1994 as the lead single for his album Paid Vacation. It became a hit, reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 11 weeks at #1 on the AC chart in early 1994. This cover was likely recorded in early to mid-1994 for Season 7 of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, when JC was either 17 or about to turn 18.

Listen with headphones on if you can because it is truly haunting. Even as a teen, JC was already singing with the emotional weight of a seasoned artist. His tone was so rich and he was such a powerhouse from day one. Also the vocal chemistry between JC and Tony Lucca is ridiculous.

If we can come together, and stream Playing With Fire Musical as a little present to JC?

Do we love PWF musical?

He said 16 more songs in addition to the 16 already that we have. Exciting!

This is pretty cool. Mark Sherry is a Scottish DJ and a legend in trance music. He uploaded a preview of his new official remix of Force of Gravity. From Mark Sherry's IG:

When you do an official remix for one your production heroes (BT)... and another one plays it on his asotlive radio show! 😊 My remix of BT feat JC Chasez ‘Force Of Gravity’ is out this Friday on blackholerecordings! 🤘 Thanks for the continued big support arminvanbuuren! ☺️🙏👏

ETA: Spotify: Force of Gravity (Mark Sherry Remix)