*NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick has roots in pop music, but he’s now living in the heart of country.
The singer moved to Nashville eight years ago with his wife, and in a new interview, he tells Fox News Digital about what drew him to Music City.
I don’t know what took us so long to get here,” he admitted. “We’ve been here eight years now, and, just the town, it’s a beautiful town.”
“I’m talking about the experience,” he continued. “I’m talking about, you know, what we get in the whole package that is Nashville.”
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Chris Kirkpatrick was a member of the band *NSYNC, along with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass. (Getty Images)
His 6-year-old son was born in Nashville in 2017.
“His name is Nash, of all things,” Kirkpatrick laughed. “And, you know, he really loves the town, I think sometimes he gets upset with my wife and I when he knows that we lived in Orlando, right by Disney World. And here I’m like, ‘Yeah, but if we would have stayed, maybe your name would have been Oral.’”
He said even if Nashville was “horrible,” “it would still be an amazing town because of the people. But it’s [not], you know, it’s got all this other great stuff to it. And the people here are just unbelievable.”
Kirkpatrick joked that he thought he was back in his “MTV days getting ‘Punk’d’ when we used to come up here and visit and hang out with friends. We’re like, ‘Why is everyone so nice?’”
He said he feels like he and his wife are “nice” people, but he hasn’t always experienced that from people in other places he’s lived.
Chris Kirkpatrick and his wife Karly moved to Nashville eight years ago. (Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)
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The 52-year-old added, “And now here, it’s like we have to step up our game again and match the politeness and niceness that is Nashville. But it’s a great town. There’s always something going on. And I think that’s what makes it important to us.”
Kirkpatrick also shared his thoughts on the bar scene in the Tennessee capital – particularly the bars on Broadway.
“Broadway, if you’ve ever been to Nashville, [the bars are] all changing their names to artists, which make it very identifiable … Garth Brooks’ bar, Friends in Low Places, is amazing,” the 47-year-old told Fox News Digital while discussing his plans for a bar in Nashville with Bon Jovi. “That place is amazing.”
Former MTV star Brian McFayden, who is hosting the podcast “Name Drop” with Kirkpatrick, gushed equally about the country star, saying he tops both of their lists for a dream guest to have on.
Brian McFayden and Kid Rock appeared on a 2002 episode of “TRL.” (Theo Wargo/WireImage)
“I think we have the same person [we want on the podcast], but Garth Brooks, I want on. Yeah, that man’s been around for a long time, and, you know, he would have just a ton of stories. He’s a great storyteller,” he said.
Kirkpatrick agreed, adding, “Exactly. A lot of the older, you know, artists usually have some really great name drops.”
He said that today people will mention meeting Taylor Swift or The Weeknd, “but when you go back and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, like me and Keith Richards used to go out and drink at this place’ or whatever it is. Those are the ones that you really get some juicy stuff, because those are the ones we have history on. Those are the ones that you look at and go, ‘Oh my God. I remember hearing a story about that time.’”
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Chris Kirkpatrick, left, rose to fame with boy band *NSYNC. (Getty Images)
Kirkpatrick and McFayden began their podcast last summer, with Kirkpatrick explaining that the inspiration for the show came from both of them being in the industry for so many years and feeling like name-droppers when they spent time with people outside of Hollywood.
He said that he and McFayden were hanging out together a few years ago with friends, “and we were just telling stories about the MTV days or whatever, and people that were around us were looking at us like, ‘These guys are just sitting here dropping names the entire time,’ you know, because when you’re in the business, you know a lot of people, and you don’t know if you’re worse by being like, ‘Oh yeah, me and, you know, Tom, we’re down the street the other day’ and somebody’s like ‘Tom?’ [and] you’re like, ‘Yeah, Tom Cruise,’ you know, or if you’re just like, yeah, ‘Me and Tom Cruise, we’re down here, you know?’ So either way, it’s kind of awkward, but it gets uncomfortable.”
WATCH: *NSYNC’S CHRIS KIRKPATRICK EXPLAINS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND HIS ‘NAME DROP’ PODCAST WITH BRIAN MCFAYDEN
The “Bye, Bye, Bye” singer said one of his own favorite “name drop” moments was when he got to work with Phil Collins.
“I’ve got everywhere from Stevie Wonder to Paul McCartney, which was great, but I think, doing a song with Phil Collins and being in the vocal booth at the same time, it was just him and I, and I’m singing and I’m realizing, you know, ‘No Jacket Required’ was the first cassette tape I ever owned,” he said.
“And now I’m singing with the man himself and being around Michael, being around Garth and being around these people, you know, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney. Like I said, those are the ones that walking down the hall, if they see you and acknowledge you, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’ This wasn’t just an encounter. This was, he goes: ‘Oh, I recognize you. Or ‘Oh, you know, we have something in common.’ And those are the stories that are the best stories.”
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Kirkpatrick also touched on the viral *NSYNC reunion during Justin Timberlake’s show in Los Angeles in March, saying he wasn’t used to how audiences now watch concerts through their cellphones.
*NSYNC reunited at the premiere of 2023’s “Trolls Band Together.” (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
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“It was the first show that I ever walked out on the stage and didn’t see one single face,” he said. “I mean, the entire auditorium, I didn’t see one smile.”
He added that all he saw was people holding their phones in front of their faces.
“I was like, ‘Man.’ I did see my wife and kid ’cause she’s like, ‘I’m not going to film this. I’m here enjoying it.’ But, you know, everybody else was live-streaming because the rumor was out and all this. And so it was a weird experience for me to go out and not see a face and just to see cameras. I felt like I was just doing a TV show.”