DOB:
8/8/76Some people are born to entertain, and some don’t know their own potential.
That was the case with young Joshua Scott Chasez. Born in Washington D.C. and
raised in Bowie Maryland, JC never was one to start singing and dancing for no
reason. However, when he was 12 years old he entered a talent show on a bet with
a friend, and ended up winning the event. It was at that point, that he caught
the performing “bug”. He left Bowie and his mom Karen and siblings Heather and
Tyler, and went with his father Roy to audition for Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club
in Orlando, Florida. JC made the cast as a presenter, and very soon was
performing skits with future pop-stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and
some blonde kid named Justin Timberlake. JC displayed his fine acting talents
with such memorable characters as Clarence “Wipeout” Adams, Gary Gross, The
Junkfood Dog and many others. However, in 1994 the Mickey Mouse Club came to an
end, and JC packed his bags, and headed home for Bowie.
JC and Justin
remained in close contact, and both tossed around the idea of continuing to
perform in some other fashion. Then one day, Chris Kirkpatrick, a doo-wop singer
at Universal Studios in Orlando, got a hold of the two former mouseketeers, and
convinced them to start an acapella group with him. The three then met up with
Joey Fatone, the Wolfman in Universal Studio’s Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue, and
convinced him to join them as well. After a call to Justin’s old voice coach,
the guys met up with their bass singer, Lance Bass, and the five guys started
working on a routine. With all five members together, *NSYNC was born in
1996.
From the beginning, it was clear that although the guys were
equally talented, it was JC who was the workhorse behind the scenes. As *NSYNC,
a name they had created out of the last initials in each of their first names,
headed to Europe to build a fan base, JC was the one making sure that everyone
did what was needed to be done in order for them to succeed. The guys became
instant celebrities in Germany, and their success quickly followed them around
the continent. The band was signed to BMG Munich and cut their first album. They
were huge in Europe, but now it was time to come back to the States, where they
would be in direct competition with the immensely popular Backstreet Boys.
Their self-titled debut album was a huge hit in the U.S, sold ten
million copies, and went diamond in 1998, reaching number two on the charts. Its
success was followed by the holiday album "Home For Christmas" which went
multi-platinum. A tour with Janet Jackson followed, and after a live concert on
the Disney channel, *NSYNC was the hottest band on the planet. Unfortunately,
the guys were then forced to deal with a legal dispute with their management
team over finances, their freedom to make decisions, and even their own name.
The guys settled the matter, and signed a new record deal with Jive Records, and
picked up former New Kids On The Block manager Johnny Wright. Immediately, they
returned to the studio and began working on their second album "No Strings
Attached", the name coming from their newly gained freedom. JC would try his
hand at writing and producing for the first time, and he came up with the hits
"Space Cowboy", "No Strings Attached" and "Digital Getdown”.
On the
strength of his debut as a writer and producer, JC was asked to work with
several other bands. The first of these groups was Boyz and Girlz United, whose
first single "Messed Around" was written and produced by JC. He would also work
with the all girl group, Wild Orchid, on their third studio release with the
songs "Fire" and "Lies”.
*NSYNC’s next album, "No Strings Attached",
would set records with one million copies sold the first day and 2.4 million in
the first week. The tour that followed also set a standard for how huge acts
should perform live. In July of 2000, JC would be named one of People Magazine’s
Top 100 Bachelor’s, an accolade he never paid much attention to.
In
2001, the guys returned to the studio to work on their third album,
"Celebrity".
Celebrity was a concept album for the former squeaky-clean,
boy-band, who completely changed direction with the pure dance tracks on the
album. For "Celebrity", JC co-wrote four songs and co-produced three, including
“The Game Is Over”, “The Two Of Us”, “Up Against The Wall” and “Selfish.” The
album was a huge success, and the guys decided to do a tour to match the album.
What came from the "Celebrity" album was one of the biggest, most elaborate
concert tours that the industry had ever seen. The POPODYSSEY Tour brought not
only the hit songs of the "Celebrity" album, but also brought the award winning
videos to life as well. When the POPODYSSEY Tour came to an end, the guys
changed hats, and went back on the road for the Celebrity Tour, which was much
more low-key, and was less glitz and fireworks, and more music and lyrics.
Following the Celebrity Tour the band took a deserved break, and with
his new free time, JC did what any workaholic would do, he went back to the
studio. This time he worked on a song with Dallas Austin, producer of several
TLC hits, for the song “Blowin’ Me Up (With Her Love),” for the "Drumline"
Soundtrack. The song would become his first solo single and his studio sessions
with Dallas Austin would become an album.
For his first solo album,
entitled Schizophrenic, the word he uses to explain the multitude of musical
flavors on the album, JC worked with producers Alex Greggs and Brad Daymond,
Robb Boldt, Rockwilder, the Basement Jaxx and BT, the electronic music guru
behind "Pop". The album is set to be released in February 2004. JC is also
looking forward to returning to the studio with his *NSYNC partners. The group
plans on returning to the studio early in 2004, to create an album that is
different from anything they’ve done before.
Courtesy of Nsync.com
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