"You want to leave a good impression. It's about wanting to be as good as you can," he said from his dark Abu Dhabi dressing room on Sunday night. "In my case, I can't let anyone down but myself."
Having waited for more than three hours for the American songwriter and producer to even agree to an interview, let alone execute it, I was ushered into a room where Timbaland sprawled on a low sofa and made no attempt to get up.
I wasn't expecting an apology. After all this is the man who produced hits for music giants including Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and 50 Cent, to name a few. I wouldn't have minded an explanation as to why a small girl in a pink dress slept on the sofa next to him, an introduction to an older lady seated awkwardly opposite me and a reason that the TV carried only a fuzzy snow screen. Instead, I counted my blessings I'd been allowed in this far.
That's as far as it went.
Questions were side-stepped in that very Hollywood way. At first I put it down to diplomacy and clever marketing. It soon became apparent other things might have been on his mind.
Sports fan
"I'm missing the final right now. My city, Miami Heat against Dallas," he said when asked whether he's a sports man. "So yeah, we do follow sports. But it's also great to be here to learn about other sports around the world."
"I know football is the biggest sport in Europe so I was surprised to see the impact here too. What's the other one? With the paddle?" his brow heavily furrowed. "I don't know what it is, it's not polo or anything like that."
Video: Timbaland in Abu Dhabi
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