Justin Timberlake and Joey Fatone accomplished a lot while both were part of NSYNC. The boy band garnered eight Grammy nominations and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and while the group members may never reunite again, these wealthy pop stars can always remember all of their extraordinary experiences, including that time that ended in Alcatraz.
“So we were filming a video in the redwoods outside of San Francisco and ended up filming this scene on this dock directly in front of Alcatraz,” Timberlake explained during a March 2024 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Recalling that he had been “watching The Untouchables over and over” at that time and “was obsessed with the fact that Al Capone [had been put] in Alcatraz,” he asked if anyone wanted to visit the infamous maximum-security prison with him. Apparently Fatone, “who is generally a game for anything,” volunteered. That might not have been a wise decision considering what ended up happening t the famous couple.
Timberlake and Fatone were caught ‘entering’ Alcatraz
Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesWhen NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and Joey Fatone decided they wanted to visit Alcatraz, the “Sexy Back” singer told The Ellen DeGeneres’ show that they asked the San Francisco fire department to take them to the island’s prison. However, the singers did not realize that they needed to purchase tickets to participate in the tour.
“So we got to the front door and they say, ‘Tickets please,'” Timberlake recalled. “I thought, ‘The guy behind me has the tickets.'” He said they “ended up … sneaking away” and made their way into “one of the tour groups.” However, his scheme was not successful. “By the time we were halfway [the tour] and we had just arrived at Al Capone’s cell, I got a tap on the shoulder and they said, ‘Come with me.'”
Although the singers were thankfully lat go with only one warning, Timberlake admitted that he said to his bandmate, “Joe, we are gonna go down in history as the dumbest people ever. We got caught breaking into a prison.”
