Many people prefer the side dishes to the turkey on Thanksgiving, but for *NSYNC‘s Joey Fatone, the one dish that makes the holiday is the bird.

“Oh, gosh. I mean, turkey. I mean, come on!” Joey told ABC Audio when asked what he absolutely has to have on his Thanksgiving table. “I’m not huge on the cranberries or the stuffing — just in general, turkey. But, you know, it’s so funny. For some reason, being an Italian, I was taught, there’s always pasta in there as well.”

Ironically, Joey publicly went through an AirSculpt fat-removal procedure on his stomach and chin — just in time for the holiday that’s all about eating huge quantities of food. But he says he’s not going to deny himself Thanksgiving treats — or anything else for that matter.

“Let’s be real here. I’m not the type of person that’s gonna be like, ‘Well, listen, I’ve stopped eating carbs for the rest of my life…,'” he says. “For me, I never cancel or kill things out of my diet. I just will lean back on stuff and pull back on things.”

So, when faced with a table full of pasta on Thanksgiving Day, Joey says his watchword is “moderation.”

“I can eat it. Just don’t eat 18 bowls of [pasta] — which I would love to do!” he says.

You can see Joey in cartoon form in the new movie Trolls Band Together: He plays Ablaze, a member of a Trolls boy band called Kismet. The other members of *NSYNC make up the rest of the imaginary group: JC Chasez is Hype, Chris Kirkpatrick is Trickee, Lance Bass is Boom and of course, Justin Timberlake is the movie’s main character, Branch.

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