Justin Timberlake covers THR‘s New Issue | Talks being a Father, Why he Left NSYNC & More

Justin Timberlake is the cover star of THR‘s new issue! Here’s what the 36-year-old entertainer had to share with the mag:

On the first time he got chased by girls: I was about 15 or 16 years old,” he says. “We’d just given a concert in Germany at a festival on this huge field. And we were in the tour bus afterward, driving on a dirt road, and I looked out the window and saw all these young, impressionable females running after the bus.” He shrugs his shoulders and gets to the point of the story: “I think we can all agree that I did not have a normal childhood

On being a father: “You go through your life with your own traumas, big and small, and think, ‘It’s not that bad, I have a lot to be thankful for, my parents did the best they could.’ But then you have a child of your own, and suddenly it opens all the floodgates, and you’re like, ‘No, no, no! That childhood trauma really did f— me up!’ ”

On why he bailed on NSYNC: “We were on a stadium tour, and I just felt like the whole thing was too big,” says Timberlake, explaining why he decided to bail. “It started as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalanche. And, also, I was growing out of it. I felt like I cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group. And I felt like I had other music I wanted to make and that I needed to follow my heart.”

On if Silas wanted to be a performer: “Would I want my child to follow my path? You know, I haven’t been able to answer that question in my mind. If he wanted it bad enough, I suppose I could teach him a lot about what not to do.”