Justin Timberlake was announced as the Super Bowl's halftime show headliner in October. / Photo by Amy Harris, Invision/AP (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Justin Timberlake to party at Prince's Paisley Park during Super Bowl week
Tickets are already listed as sold-out for an American Express party at Prince's place on Feb. 1.
January 13, 2018 at 3:22PM
Looks like a small number of Justin Timberlake fans will be using Paisley Park's temporary liquor license during Super Bowl week to pop some champagne.
American Express is hosting a "listening session" with Timberlake featuring food, drink and a hint at "more" from the "Sexyback" singer in the home of late "Lovesexy" legend Prince on Feb. 1, according to an eTix.com web page. Sorry, folks, it already lists tickets as sold out.
Should Timberlake opt to perform that night -- Prince himself usually kept Paisley visitors guessing -- 36-year-old pop star would have 2½ days to rest up for the Super Bowl halftime show at U.S. Bank Stadium that Sunday. JT's lumberjacky new album, "Man of the Woods," comes out the day after the party at Paisley.
Apparently, a lucky few American Express card holders were surprised with access to the $80 tickets on Friday night. No word yet on how many were sold. Amex is a sponsor of Timberlake's upcoming Man of the Woods Tour and is selling pre-sale tickets to all his upcoming dates (none in Minnesota; unless this Paisley thing count).
Presumably, the concert will take place in Paisley Park's soundstage area, the high-ceilinged, 1,800-person room where Prince usually performed at the Chanhassen studio complex, which he built in 1987, and where he died in 2016. Parties there also sometimes took place in the adjoining NPG Music Club, which only holds a few hundred people.
As is commonplace at Paisley Park, cell phones will be disallowed at the party, and fans will be shuttled in from the nearby Chanhassen Transit Station. Other stipulations: They will have to present their Amex card upon entry, a tactic that safeguards the show from ticket scalpers.
Earlier this week, the Chanhassen City Council approved Paisley Park's request for a temporary liquor license -- good from Jan. 29-Feb. 5 -- to host parties around the Super Bowl. The studio is now officially zoned as a museum, but there's obvious financial incentive to host some of that week's big-buck private parties (most of which involve booze).
Not only is Timberlake well-known to be a Prince fanatic – he penned a terrific tribute upon his death– he also has hometown Memphis ties with Graceland Holdings. The overseers of Elvis's estate also now run Paisley Park.
Timberlake is also scheduled to join his buddy Jimmy Fallon on the post-Super Bowl "Tonight Show" broadcast from the Orpheum Theatre on Feb. 4. It looks to be a busy week for him.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
