Christopher Alan Kirkpatrick

DOB: 10/17/71
From: Clarion, PA
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

Chris Kirkpatrick may very well go down in history as having one of the greatest ideas in entertainment history. Born Christopher Alan Kirkpatrick, it was his idea to put together the singing group know the world over as *NSYNC. Born and raised in Clarion, Pennsylvania, Chris, his mom Beverly, and his four half-sisters Molly, Kate, Emily, and Taylor spent a lot of time on the road. Unfortunately, they weren’t spending all that time on vacation. Chris’ father died when Chris was younger, which meant that his mother was forced to support the family working several odd jobs. Chris and his sisters were constantly changing schools, but one thing that remained the same in each place was his desire to perform. He eventually went to college and received his Associates of Arts Degree from Valencia College in Dayton, Ohio. From there he transferred to Rollins College in Orlando, Florida, where he would take his first real singing and dancing classes.

School was not for Chris, so he dropped out of college and got a job working at Universal Studios in Orlando, singing in a doo-wop group. Outside of work, Chris tried desperately to break into the music business, but the groups he was joining were never as serious about it as he was. In 1995 he contacted former Disney Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake and asked him if he wanted to start a group. Justin was thrilled, and mentioned another former Mouseketeer named JC Chasez who was equally talented and definitely interested. The three met up in Orlando and went looking for a guy Chris had met at Universal named Joey Fatone.

Joey agreed to join the band, and the quartet was almost ready to start. In need of a bass voice, Justin contacted his old voice coach in Memphis, Tennessee, who recommended a young man from Mississippi named Lance Bass. He rushed to Orlando when he heard what Chris was planning, and the five guys now calling themselves *NSYNC began rehearsing.

They cut a demo tape and headed to Germany to try to get a record deal. They signed with BMG Ariola Munich and released a self-titled album. The guys then went on tour across Europe and, seemingly overnight, became the biggest act in town. Chris was happy with their success, but realized that they would need to do just as well in the U.S. to really make an impact. Even he couldn’t expect what would happen when they got back to the States.

When they returned to the U.S. in 1998, they released their self-titled debut album and waited to see the response. When the album went diamond, selling over ten million copies, they figured that they might be on to something. Chris enjoyed the group’s success over the next year and remained his light-hearted prankster self. As the guys released a seasonal album called “Home For Christmas”, Chris was developing a very distinct look. His wildly braided hair became trademark and made him one of the most recognizable people in the industry. In 1999 he, and his band-mates, would become even more recognizable, as they entered into legal battles with their management and record company. The proceedings became a very public matter but were settled out of court, finally cutting loose the strings on the biggest band in the industry.

That idea carried into the studio, and during the legal disputes *NSYNC decided to return to the studio without a record deal and create the album that they wanted. They picked the producers and started writing their own songs, and it wasn’t long before they realized that they had something very special on their hands. They signed a new record deal with Jive Records and set out to release their second album, "No Strings Attached". Chris had always hoped that the guys would make it big, but with one million copies sold the first day and 2.4 million sold in the first week, the success was more than he ever could have imagined.

The guys took the album on tour, and at the end of 2000 they were the biggest band in the world. That stature would inspire their third album “Celebrity”. "Celebrity" was almost completely written by the guys themselves and created four huge hits for *NSYNC. The song “Pop” became an anthem for an entire genre of music, and the five guys who were singing it coined the phrase “Dirty-Pop” as a more realistic picture of what they were doing. Pop was definitely the word of the year in 2001, as *NSYNC took their hit album on the road with the POPODYSSEY Tour.

Selling out every major arena in the country, including Madison Square Garden in under an hour, the POPODYSSEY Tour was the most extravagant tour of the year. The tour was a huge success and was immediately followed up with the Celebrity Tour, which was a more mellow venture with less glitz and more music.

When the Celebrity Tour ended, the guys were exhausted and decided to take a well-deserved break. Chris had seen his dreams come to fruition, and he spent the next year playing in celebrity golf tournaments and appearing in music videos for other artists. He worked on a clothing line, as well as with other artists; but for the most part simply tried to take in all that had happened to him in the past few years.

From down-and-out in Ohio to rich-and-famous in Orlando, Chris Kirkpatrick has been through a lot. Never forgetting where he came from, Chris was proud to start the Challenge For The Children charity basketball event with the rest of *NSYNC. Now Chris is looking forward to joining the guys in the studio in the fall of 2003 to work on their next album. And to think this all came about because of Chris’ brilliant idea to quit his job and start the most successful band in the world.

Courtesy of Nsync.com

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