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| Bieber Justine |
He’s a talented, resilient young man who’s reinvented himself incredibly successfully in the shallow world of pop music that usually swallows up and destroys most of its teen idols.
We’ve met once, at the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party in 2011. When I was introduced to him, he promptly stood up, shook my hand and said: ‘Nice to meet you, Sir.’
He then introduced me to Selena Gomez, his girlfriend at the time, and the three of us chatted for a few minutes.
Two things struck me about that brief encounter.
One, Master Bieber is tiny. Two, he was incredibly polite and respectful.
I thought of this when I watched footage of him stomping off stage at the Manchester Arena in England last night. He was angry because some of his fans started booing when he kept stopping his show to talk to them about why his tour was called Purpose.
Yes, a 22-year-old pop star wanted to discuss the purpose of life….
There was just one problem: the fans wanted to hear him sing, not preach to them.
Not, you might think, an unreasonable sentiment given they had forked out $60-$85 for basic tickets, with VIP packages going for $160.
Oh, and then there was the merchandise on sale at the Arena: $60 for cotton shirts, $130 for hoodies, $300 for a tour jacket and $1300 for a leather Bieber biker jacket.
All this plus the travel costs of getting there from all parts of Britain, and of course, food, drink and perhaps hotel accommodation.
So, some of those fans will have spent thousands of dollars to watch their hero perform for two hours. And if they wanted to hear him sing, not deliver homilies on the purpose of life, they have more than earned that right.
So how did Justin repay them?
He threw a little tantrum, that’s how. Actually he threw a gigantic, ego-fuelled, cocky, diva tantrum of epic proportions.
He dropped his mic, stopped the concert, and flounced off stage.
Minutes later, he returned and sneered: ‘Manc can’t handle the talking so I won’t talk.’
Well no Justin mate, it’s more that ‘Manc’ prefers to hear you singing.
If ‘Manc’ wanted deep, meaningful conversation about the purpose of life, they’d go see the Dalai Lama.
At the end of the show, Bieber explained his distress:
‘The reason I was getting upset earlier was because I travelled across the whole world to come here and I dedicate my life to performing and bring smiles to people’s faces. I feel that people were just not giving me the respect back and it hurts a little bit, so that’s why. I thought I could have a moment to say something, but if you guys want, I can cut the bulls**t!
‘I’m trying to engage but if you guys don’t want to, I’ll play the music.’
You said it yourself, Justin, the purpose of life stuff is ‘bulls**t’.
No 22-year-old can have any real comprehension of what the purpose of life is, so why bother trying to pretend you do?
This wasn’t his first hissy-fit on the UK leg of his tour.
Last Thursday, in Birmingham, Bieber erupted when fans screamed as he delivered his purpose of life speech.
‘If, when I’m speaking’ he snapped, ‘you guys could not scream at the top of your lungs, is that cool with you guys? The screaming is just so obnoxious.’
Wow.
Really, Justin?
You think your fans are ‘obnoxious’ because they have the temerity to scream in adulation at you?
How about taking a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror young man to see who’s being truly obnoxious around here?
Bieber’s not had an easy life.
His parents split up when he was a toddler and the angst that caused weighed heavily on him.
Becoming a teen superstar, with all the weird myriad pressures it brings, poured fuel onto the fire of that angst.
In 2014, he went bonkers, charging around drunk-driving, taking drugs, crashing cars, chucking eggs at his neighbours, fighting and having frequent run-ins with the cops. A damaging tape emerged from when he was 15 of him using the N-word.
It’s fair to say Bieber didn’t just go off the rails, he smashed through the safety barriers and was careering into professional and personal oblivion.
I had an interesting email exchange at the time with his dad Jeremy.
‘Justin is 19,’ Jeremy told me, ‘He is simply finding himself in this world of illusions. He is experimenting and exploring the only way he can which is far milder than average. I would be worried if he wasn’t. I suppose it’s human nature to try and break people down, but that’s not going to happen with my family. This will make us stronger. It’s easy to judge someone you don’t know. I no longer need to physically hold Justin’s hand through life. I expose him to family values and give him advice from the lessons I learned. I tell him I love him every day. He is an incredible young man, and anyone who actually took a minute to talk to him would see this magnificent person is not just OK, he is fantastic. I just wanted to give you some insight from a father to a father.’
I was impressed by his candour and, as the father of three young men myself (now 23, 19 and 15) I understood the importance of letting your lads come of age in their own way.
Following his train-wreck year, Justin pulled himself together, got back to work, produced some great new music and turned himself from a global laughing stock into a credible superstar again.
That is all greatly to his credit.
What’s disappointing about his behaviour this past week is that he’s not a teenage kid any more.
He’s now a grown man who’s been given a rare second chance to enjoy the highly lucrative hanging fruits of superstardom and he should be more appreciative of that fact than he appears to be.
The fans screaming at him or begging him to sing not prattle on about the purpose of life are the ones who stood by him in his time of need.
He owes them the very respect he is indignantly, selfishly demanding for himself.
My advice to Justin Bieber is simple, and it’s the same advice I would give my own sons: be the guy your dad believes you to be.
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