Justin Bieber Covers ‘Billboard,’ Talks About The Nude Pic & Making Meaningful Dance Music
Justin Bieber has been hitting the media circuit hard ahead of Purpose (out November 13), and his latest “in-depth,” “revealing” interview comes by way of a Billboard cover story. In the magazine’s November 14 issue, he hits all the talking points for his latest era: the maturity, the religion, the difficulty getting over the Selena Gomez breakup, the new musical direction, the new inner circle to keep him from his wild child ways.
But the most interesting tidbit may not have even come from Bieber, but from his longtime manager Scooter Braun. “I see people pointing, saying what a great job I did orchestrating his comeback,” Braun said at one point. “I’ll be frank. I failed for a year and a half. He shut himself off and went into a dark place. Every single day I tried to help him turn it around, and every single day I failed. And I tried desperately. The only person who deserves credit for this is Justin.”
Check out more highlights from the interview below.
On making dance music with meaning: “It’s hard to make meaningful songs that make you want to dance because it can come off cheesy. In the past I’ve recorded songs that I didn’t like, that I wouldn’t listen to, that the label was telling me to record. I’m self-expressing with this album — I can’t skip on the moments that were dark, the moments that were happy, the ex-girlfriend stuff. It makes it real, rather than ‘Let’s call up Max Martin to write you a hit song.’ I want my music to be inspiring.”
On Selena: “I’m proud of the woman she is today…When you love someone that much, even if something comes between you, it’s a love that never really dies.”
On teen stardom: “I want people to be more kind to young celebrities. Like Kylie [Jenner]. Look at her world: She has been living on TV since she was a kid. Every time she’s looking around she sees a camera, and that’s affecting how she’s thinking and how she’s perceiving people and why she has to do certain things … Situations that happen taint your mind, especially in this industry. Especially for girls.”
On Bette Midler’s reaction to his dad’s reaction to The Pic: “This Britt Meddler, I don’t even know who that is, honestly. I wanted to immediately say ‘Who is this lady?’, but then I’m just fueling this negativity. I do feel the photo was an invasion of my privacy. I felt super violated. My dad made light of it, but I don’t think that’s sick and twisted. It was funny. Dads are going to be dads.”
On his father: “He was immature. He left for like a year when I was about 4, went to British Columbia, came back on Father’s Day. I remember my mom said, ‘If you’re going to be here, you have to be here.’ There’s a misconception that he’s this deadbeat dad, but he has been in my life since. I was with him on weekends and Wednesdays.”
Read the full interview over at Billboard.
