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Justin Timberlake always finds the spotlight

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This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Oscar Isaac, left, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." (AP Photo/CBS FIlms, Alison Rosa)

This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Oscar Isaac, left, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." (AP Photo/CBS FIlms, Alison Rosa)

When you’re Justin Timberlake, going incognito is impossible — even in Nashville. Music City residents are used to seeing Carrie Underwood grab groceries at Whole Foods, Taylor Swift dine at Pancake Pantry and Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban just about everywhere.

But throw Timberlake into the mix and reports of his whereabouts from eager locals fill social media with a fervor that’s akin to a bonafide sighting of fellow Memphian Elvis Presley.

It’s a comparison that makes the “SexyBack” singer laugh.

“That’s too high of a praise,” said Timberlake, who stars in the new film “Inside Llewyn Davis.” “It’s funny how that stuff happens. It’s a nice compliment.”

Justin Timberlake performs Friday night at Bridgestone Arena. (Karen Kraft / The Tennessean) Click on the photo to  see a gallery from the concert.

Justin Timberlake performs Friday night at Bridgestone Arena. (Karen Kraft / The Tennessean) Click on the photo to see a gallery from the concert.

Timberlake played Bridgestone Arena about a month ago, and he got to town a day early to spend time with friends (his younger brother is also a student at a Nashville university). Timberlake gave a shout out to popular eatery Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant from the stage, suggesting fans try the turnip greens.

Lately, however, he’s been dishing out interviews on his new Coen Brothers movie, which opens in Middle Tennessee today. Timberlake doesn’t have the starring role in the film, a portrayal of the 1960s folk scene in New York City. But a song he co-wrote and sings in the movie “Please, Mr. Kennedy,” earned a Golden Globe nomination this month.

Timberlake plays Jim Berkey, a character that music producer T Bone Burnett said was the second-best singer in the room.

“I love working with actors, and Justin’s another one of those guys who can perform from the bridge (between actor and musician), like (lead actor) Oscar (Isaac),” said Burnett, who was musical supervisor for ABC television series “Nashville” in the first season.

“He comes in as a contributing artist, and he puts everything on the table, just like everybody else, and he had to play this beautiful thing where Oscar was supposed to be a better singer than the character Justin was playing (laughs),” Burnett said. “He’s able to submerge his ego in that way, as well.”

Timberlake didn’t talk about “Inside Llewyn Davis” during his Tennessean interview while in Nashville, but he’s quoted in GQ’s December issue saying: “You do a Coens movie and secretly you’re like, ‘All I want to do is make people laugh in this movie. If I can make people laugh in this movie, then I don’t care. Whatever else happens, happens.’ ”

He told the magazine that at the Cannes Film Festival “people were laughing out loud, and it was like that first drink of warm tea — or that first cold drink of beer, or that first hit off a joint. You’re just like, ‘Yeah, everything’s going to be all right.’ ”

A new calling?

While in Nashville, Timberlake wanted to talk about country music and where he wants to fit in. He feels so strongly about Music City that he said a personal and professional move to town isn’t a question of “if” but “when.”

A few hours before Timberlake donned his suit and tie for his sold-out crowd, he was wearing a flannel shirt and flat-billed cap.

Seated in a dimly lit dressing room under Bridgestone Arena, the actor/singer was concerned with one thing: making the reporter comfortable. He offered water, soda, to move to a different location and raising the lights, before he settled in for an interview that turned out — at his request — to be more than twice as long as the original time planned.

“The next move for me is to sink some teeth in here,” said Timberlake, who said he grew up listening to country music with his grandfather. “I’ve done it before. I got a taste of it.”

Timberlake co-wrote “The Only Promise That Remains,” which Reba McEntire included on her “Duets” album, and he sang background vocals on the recording of the song.

This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Carey Mulligan, left, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." (AP Photo/CBS FIlms, Alison Rosa)

This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Carey Mulligan, left, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." (AP Photo/CBS FIlms, Alison Rosa)

“I wrote and produced the song, and it reminded me of the songs that my grandfather used to make me listen to when I was a kid — in a great way,” he said. “It hit me, ‘Oh I wrote this song because of my childhood.’ It ended up being this thing that country radio wouldn’t play.”

Not that that is going to discourage him. Timberlake points out that at 32 years old, he’s been “doing what I’m doing now for a long time.”

“There might be another calling for me out there,” he said. “And it might be being a part of music in this way as a communicator and a teacher and a guide.”

Might Taylor Swift be a potential student? He questioned what the multi-platinum-selling singer’s career will be “when she crosses over the threshold of adulthood.”

“She’ll get her day in the sun when she’s ready to move the needle,” he said. “That was something I was very conscious of. I was in a group that was bigger than bubble gum (*NSYNC). Talk about stadiums. We played every stadium in the world, it feels like. It’s almost like, with anything, when you do settle into adulthood is when when people respect you in a different way. But there’s no question in my mind that that’s where she’s going, if she so chooses. For me I am sort of the oracle of the idea, and I’m also the communicator of it.”

He also wants to break down genre barriers in songwriting.

“When are we just all going to sit in the same room and go, ‘You know what? The clash of cultures is what it’s about,’ ” he said. “And to be honest, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about how I’d like to be a part of it. That’s what I’m looking forward to in the next 10 or 15 years, helping these young kids who are songwriters make a career out of it.”

He wants to make them understand that if the song is right, it can be pitched to Miranda Lambert or Christina Aguilera.

“A good song is a good song is a good song,” he said. “There’s still so much that can happen in Nashville, and I look to the future and I want to be a part of it. And I’m not just blowing smoke. I don’t say that about Los Angeles. I don’t think I would move to Nashville. I know I would move to Nashville. It’s a matter of time. And it’s what this place could offer me, to be that outlet for all these different styles.”

Dave Paulson contributed to this story.

READ MORE: Interview: T Bone Burnett on the music of ‘Llewyn Davis’

‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

Rated: R for language, including some sexual references.

Opening today: Belcourt Theatre, which has hosted “The Coen Brothers: 30 Years.” The series this month has featured 12 Coen Brothers films leading to today’s opening.

Additional: An opening conversation will follow tonight’s 7:10 showing of “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Veteran musician and musical historian Pete Finney will lead a conversation with songwriter, singer and author Janis Ian, who began her career in the 1960s New York City folk scene depicted in the film; and songwriter and Rhino Books owner Fred Koller, who, like Ian, was a close friend of Dave Van Ronk, on whom the Davis character is loosely based.


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