Rider Strong Remembers That Time Justin Timberlake Inadvertently Dissed Monkees’ Micky Dolenz to His Face: ‘Really Don’t Wanna Do That’

At some point, (nearly) every member of 1960s made-for-TV boy band the Monkees appeared on the series Boy Meets World. According to the latest episode of the rewatch Pod Meets World show hosted by three of the stars of the beloved 1990s sitcom — Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong — before a season eight episode directed by the band’s drummer/singer Micky Dolenz that featured his former bandmates Peter Tork and Davy Jones, Dolenz got an earful on set from another boy band star.

Dolenz fist got behind the camera for the season six episode “Bee True,” during which then-contemporary boy band *NSYNC dropped by to visit and, according to Strong, group member Justin Timberlake inadvertently dissed Dolenz. “So we were at craft services and it was me and Justin [Timberlake] and I guess Lance [Bass] or whoever else, having a conversation about, like, what’s next [for the group]? And Justin was like, ‘Yeah, they want us to do, like, a TV show, you know, like with the band acting,’” Timberlake said in reference to what sounds like a modern version of 1966-1968 show The Monkees, in which the four musicians in the band played heightened versions of their goofy selves while reliably busting into song several times an episode.

When Strong sighed and asked if JT, Bass, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick were considering going down that path, he said Timberlake was like, “‘Yeah, we really don’t wanna do that’ and were both just of acknowledging that’s kind of crappy, cheesy… a hokey idea. And Micky Dolenz grabbed a handful of nuts from craft services and said, ‘Why? Why not? Why not?’”

Strong recalled Timberlake trying to dance away from the red face moment after realizing who he was talking to and stammering, “Ohhhh! Well, uh, it’s just not, well, we’ll see, we’re on tour… maybe [we’ll do it]… I don’t know why we wouldn’t.”

Timberlake, 44, recently revealed that he had been quietly battling the effects of Lyme disease for his entire Forget Tomorrow world tour, which kicked off in April 2024 and wrapped up on July 30.

Listen to the Pod Meets World episode here (JT talk begins around 42:45 minute mark).