Justin Timberlake thanked fans in the way most suited for him at his first concert since spending the night in jail after being arrested for DWI earlier this week.
“It’s been a tough week,” he said at Chicago’s United Center Friday night, after a long pause filled with cheering from the crowd. “I know sometimes I’m hard to love, but you keep on loving me and I love you right back.”
He then led the band into “Selfish,” the first single from his latest album, “Everything I Thought It Was.” He didn’t apologize explicitly or refer directly to the incident, but his sentiment seemed implicit to many vocal members of the audience.
Timberlake, 43, was arrested early Tuesday in Sag Harbor on New York’s Long Island, and was arraigned in the morning and released without bail after being charged with one count of driving while intoxicated.
According to the police report, a Sag Harbor officer spotted Timberlake’s gray 2025 BMW weaving out of a lane and going through a stop sign. The officer pulled over the car and noted that Timberlake had “bloodshot and glassy” eyes and a “strong odor” of alcohol on his breath, and was unsteady on his feet.
He then asked the singer to undertake a series of field sobriety tests, including walking in a straight line and standing on one leg, on which he “performed poorly,” according to the report.
“I had one martini and followed my friends home,” Timberlake told the officer, per the report. He refused three requests to take a Breathalyzer test.
Timberlake is currently on his “Forget Tomorrow” world tour in support of his latest album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” which was released in March. He is next scheduled to perform concerts at Chicago’s United Center on Friday and Saturday, with two more at New York’s Madison Square Garden next week. The North American leg of the tour continues until July 9 in Kentucky; it then is scheduled to head to Europe from the end of July through September before returning to North America in October, with the last date slated for Dec. 20 in Kansas City.