Justin Timberlake believes his post-*NSync success is due to his talent and hard work as much as luck.

He told Details magazine recently: “I could give you a bunch of analogies about why I’m still around that would sound like hippie self-help bullsh*t.

“‘I saw an opportunity and I took it?’ F**k you. Sure, there’s a lot of luck involved. But on some level I have to believe in my ability. And I’m not apologizing to anyone. I worked f**king hard to get here.”

He added that his new tour is “a b*tch, way more intense than anything I’ve done before” but he’s more comfortable with his work than he has been in the past: “[With my first solo album ‘Justified] I tried so hard to be an R&B artist and it was the pop album of the year, and I was like, ‘F**k. That’s the last thing I wanted.

“But I now I’m like, ‘So everyone considers me a pop artist? Well, f**k it. I’m going to do whatever I want to do’.”