

The elephant in the room? Another Raymond v Raymond: Usher's ongoing court case with his ex-wife. My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children." And hopefully my children won't go through the same issues because I'll be there to nurture them through. And I think I've been able to challenge some of those things. Things that take your mind off life and, as a result of not having a father, you're left to deal with a specific type of person. "Sins of My Father" talks about addiction "or maybe just numbing agents. Usher has expressed some of these thoughts a little more concisely in a song on Looking 4 Myself, his new album. It hurt me not having a father – certain adolescent issues would have been easier to cope with if I'd had a father there."

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Usher likes that, and seems to think his father died "as a result of making right those things that had been wrong for so long. "But he was a prideful man and he said, 'I have nothing bad to say about your mother and I own and take the responsibility.'"

If he had run away from it and said, 'Oh, your mother went and did that.'" Usher says, tailing off. But I did want him to be clear, and he was honest with me and that was enough. I never wanted him to go through the anguish of being reminded of his past. "Cos we never really discussed it in detail. "It could have been all of those," Usher nods. Not a drinker but on many different other drugs." "We're in a time with African-American boys when parents can't come to some amicable agreement where they can parent and grow," he says, somewhat confusingly, "and a lot of it could potentially be substance-driven. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean. I would have named my child Usher regardless. It's a role he relishes, and not just because it's very well-remunerated: Usher is big on paternalism.
Justin bieber usher u got it bad never say never trial#
"I believe in ordained, organic occurrences, right? And that was one of them."Įnjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign upįour years on, Usher is co-manager of Bieber and a father figure to the teen superstar. He was very adamant." But Usher told him to come back and make an appointment. "Which is why, when I first met Justin, I said, 'If it's truly meant for us to work together, I'll see you again.'" At their first encounter, Bieber attempted to audition for Usher on the spot, on the pavement, outside a studio, "in the cold. "For me the stars had to line up," Usher says of the reasons he took a punt on the then-unknown youngster. He's the record-label executive who had previously acted as shepherd-cum-sherpa to the teenage Usher as he navigated the foothills of the music industry. The only "strategic" significance Usher sees in his and Bieber's embryonic relationship was when he introduced the wannabe singer to LA Reid. Another boy and his mum and his ambition.īut Usher doesn't think this coincidence has anything to do with why he and the Canadian youngster hit it off, or why he took him under his wing. It was a journey replicated some 15 years later by Bieber – another adolescent from a broken home, relocating to America's powerhouse city of the black entertainment industry. In his early teens, Usher moved to Atlanta to pursue his dreams of a career in music, his mother acting as his manager. His own father left his mother when Usher was aged one.
