After being confirmed as a special guest on the new album by influential hip-hop producer Timbaland – Shock Value 2, which is due to drop on Monday 23 November – US pop star Justin Timberlake has spoken about his love for the music of Michael Jackson.

According to the 28-year-old “Sexy Back” singer, the “Thriller” star’s music was almost “100 percent perfect”.

“Growing up in Tennessee, I never really understood the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson or the pandemonium that followed him around,” Timberlake confessed to MTV. “I just heard certain songs that I loved as a kid and I gravitated toward those songs. It just so happens that 99.79 percent of his songs are perfect. They’re perfect songs. The other whatever percentage are works of art as well.”

The pair performed together twice, once at the MTV Video Music Awards back in 2001 (when Timberlake was part of N*Sync), and again the same year at Jackson’s 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden.