Justin TImberlake

Justin Timberlake says he’s confident that he still would have had a successful career without *NSYNC.

During an interview with Britain’s Elle magazine, the 30-year-old “SexyBack” singer said his musical talent would still have been discovered even without his involvement in the boy band.

“I don’t want this to come out the wrong way,” he said. “It was an amazing platform but even without it, I believe I would have been heard as a solo artist.”

Timberlake joined the group in 1995 before making it big as a solo artist with his debut record, “Justified” in 2002, and the 2006 follow-up “Future Sex/LoveSounds.”

When Timberlake went on his own, he said he refused to reveal the songs of his albums to his record company until they were completed, because he thought his record company had “preconceptions” of him.

“I don’t know why they let me do that. But I hadn’t come out of nowhere. People had preconceptions and I didn’t want to be misunderstood,” he explained. “I’ve learned that people have preconceptions, period. They’re uncontrollable but they’re not who you are.”

The Memphis-born singer, who currently stars in the romance comedy “Friends With Benefits,” also admits his upbringing didn’t allow him to learn much about modern music at the time.

“Where I’m from is very rural – you don’t get pop culture as much. You get that in LA, New York and Miami, on the edges of the country.”

He added, “People in the UK think that is America, but most of America is Memphis. More poor people live there than rich. Fashion or culture barely breaks through.”