Usher shared his thoughts on being compared with Justin Timberlake as they both rose to fame in the early ’00s.

In an interview for PEOPLE’s cover story, the 45-year-old singer opened up on how his relationship with the former NSYNC singer has been like.

“I think people more than likely need to find comparisons, but we are all unique artists and have our creativity. I love the producers that he works with, so much so that I worked with them. And I think he loves the producers that I worked with so much that he worked with them,” he explained.

Moreover, Usher also expressed his admiration for Justin’s boyband.

“I can remember as a kid going to their foundation events and just supporting *NSYNC and trying to get as close as I possibly could to them, because I just respected what [their manager] Johnny Wright was doing,” he recalled.

The My Boo hitmaker also revealed that he always wanted to work with Justin, “I’ve always wanted to do a record with Justin and have reached out many times, but we’ve never managed to make it happen.”