ENTERTAINMENT

Why Justin Timberlake settled in this tiny Tennessee town

Dave Paulson
dnpaulson@tennessean.com
Trace Ayala at his creative space in Leiper's Fork, Tenn., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. Ayala is in a business partnership with Justin Timberlake.

Leiper’s Fork, Tenn. has roughly 650 residents, and what it calls its “downtown” area would barely fill a city block. A vintage police car is parked permanently on one end of the stretch, setting the quaint and nostalgic scene of cafes, antique shops and art galleries.

But just around the corner from The Country Boy Restaurant and across the street from the Methodist Church, one of the biggest stars in the world has set up shop.

The sign on the front door reads “Millville” — a nod to Millington, the Memphis, Tenn. suburb where Justin Timberlake grew up. The century-old house has been renovated and restored, and it’s now a “creative space” for the pop star’s business ventures: clothing line William Rast and artist development company Villa 40, for starters.

It’s been a little over a year since Timberlake made a home for himself in Leiper’s Fork — on 126 acres of land he purchased for $4 million. But aside from “Millville,” he hadn’t made any waves in the area until last month. That’s when the Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival in nearby Franklin, Tenn. announced Timberlake had signed on as partner and producer of the event, which returns for its second year this weekend.

When the announcement came, Timberlake said teaming up with Pilgrimage was an opportunity to “contribute to my community.” As his business partner Trace Ayala tells it, that feeling of “community” was what drove him to return to the south and put down roots in Leiper’s Fork.

“We were touring everywhere, and lived in L.A., and it was so far from where we'd come from,” he said. “I think now that we've found this place and landed here, we've kind of settled things back down.”

Ayala grew up with Timberlake in Millington and works with him as his creative director. He decided to move his family to Leiper’s Fork three years ago, and it was only a matter of months before he’d convinced Timberlake to settle there with his family, too.

“It wasn't hard, because we were constantly sending (them) photos,” Ayala recalls. “Photos of our kids playing in the stream and running outside in the fields, and videos of open mic night at Puckett's. They came to visit and fell in love with the place.”

Finding the perfect spot to settle took time and a lot of work — Timberlake did so with the help of Leiper's Fork philanthropist and preservationist Aubrey Preston, who sold him a section of his 244-acre property. The land is protected against development through The Land Trust for Tennessee.

“Both of us share that love of Tennessee and enjoyed how we grew up, on land,” Preston said. “We want to do our part to save that for future generations, and our kids. That's how we got to know each other.”

When news broke that Timberlake had moved to a town outside of Nashville, speculation swirled around his future involvement on Music Row. That only heightened when he appeared at the 2015 CMA Awards and stole the show with Chris Stapleton. But, in the little time Timberlake’s spent here in the last year, Leiper’s Fork has been their base, and their efforts are driven by passion, not business, Ayala said.

They’ve signed two Nashville-based artists to Villa 40, Ivory Layne and The Shadowboxers, who just wrapped up recording with Timberlake in Los Angeles. Last week, southern rockers Bishop Gunn were working on songs at the “Millville” house.

“It's so easy to stay here and not have to leave town,” Ayala said. “We go to Puckett’s, have a couple beers, go across the street to The Country Boy and have dinner, come here and hang for a while, and then go to Green's Grocery.”

Green’s is a logical place to close out a night because there’s a stage. They’ve rented out the space on occasion, and Timberlake has jammed with The Shadowboxers there. But if you weren’t in the room, you’d never know it had happened.

On the flip side, Timberlake has been in New York City this week, and his time there is documented on a daily basis. He has a part in Woody Allen’s new film, and paparazzi photos of him on set can be seen on dozens of celebrity news sites.

But this past June, he and Ayala brought a film crew and a cast of models to “Millville,” where they shot a new promotional video for their William Rast clothing line. You’d think it was like nothing the sleepy southern town had seen before – but Ayala says that feeling went double for the visiting cast and crew.

Where could they shoot, they asked? Ayala explained that he’d talked to the neighbors and they were free to use their backyards. What about food? Well, they could just head over to The Country Boy and pay once they were finished eating. And that Methodist Church across the street would let them use their parking lot, too.

The shoot went off without a hitch — and the outside world didn’t see a single image from it until William Rast unveiled the campaign earlier this month. Leiper’s Fork has its share of famous residents. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman are among those with land in the area – and there’s a pervading sense of pride in treating these residents like any other neighbor.

“I think people out here have kind of taken it as part of their responsibility to help some of these folks (like Timberlake) feel comfortable,” Preston said. “The demands that they have on their life in the outer world are a little bit different than the average cat. I think this community as a whole tries to help them be comfortable, and have a normal life with their families, and, for the most part, that's not too hard.”

In that same vein, Timberlake’s future involvement with the Pilgrimage festival is planned to develop organically. Ayala says they’ll have “most, if not all” of their Villa 40 acts performing at next year’s festival, and Timberlake could possibly take the stage in some form.

“We don't want to take away from the festival," Ayala said. "Sometimes when Justin is a part of things, it overshadows the thing that we're trying to accomplish. So if it's right, yes, I'd love to see him do something cool with local artists, and do something different.”

In the meantime, he'll get to quietly support a community that's made him feel welcome. It sounds like he's made Leiper's Fork feel pretty good, too.

"It's exciting when somebody like Justin shows up, and he could live any place in the world, and they chose our place," Preston said. "That makes us feel like maybe we've been doing something worthwhile all these years."