Justin Timberlake denies making disparaging Taylor Hicks comments

Pop singer Justin Timberlake said that Taylor Hicks can't hold a tune and better not be gay but his publicist claims that these comments were taken wrong.

"People think he looks so normal and he's so sweet and he's so earnest, but he can't carry a tune in a bucket," Timberlake told Fashion Rocks Magazine about Hicks, winner of the most recent edition of Fox's "American Idol."

"If he has any skeletons whatsoever -- if, God forbid, he's gay -- and all these people in Mississippi who voted for him are like 'Oh, my God, I voted for a queer!' It's just too much pressure," said Timberlake.

But Timberlake's publicist, Ken Sunshine, told The Washington Post, "These comments are taken completely out of context."

Even though Timberlake and Hicks have never met, Sunshine said that Timberlake "only wishes him well. He has great affection for anybody that puts himself out there the way he did."

Timberlake's second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, is due out Sept. 12.