If there is one thing we can thank Justin Bieber for, it’s his willingness to talk openly and frankly during interviews. Post arrest, egg-throwing and monkey confiscating incidents, Bieber has done everything he can to reform his bad boy persona and cultivate a more considerate, composed image - which has involved getting friendly with the press. Of course, the singer can demonstrate flashes of astonishing self-awareness and his interviews have done much to reverse his image from teenage brat to a respected, serious adult artist capable of releasing an album that differs strongly from his previous work and is praised globally. But on other occasions, some of his remarks can leave readers and fans feeling amused, baffled and/or bemused.
As Bieber turns another year older, here are some of his more questionable answers.
On the monkey incident:
“It wasn’t like I went looking for a monkey or anything. It just kind of fell in my lap.”
On trying to cover the tattoo of his ex-girlfriend:
“Uh, this is my ex-girlfriend. So I kinda tried to cover her face up with some shading but people still know.”
On climbing on top of 700-year-old archeological ruins in Mexico and pulling his trousers down:
“I realised, you know what, obviously it looked bad, and it was disrespectful, because I was in their sacred area, showing my ass and stuff. But it was all in good fun. My boys - we do this wherever we are. It’s like a last-second thing: They go to take a picture, and I just turn [around]…but yeah, you know, clarifying that, you know, to the Mayan people or whatever, whoever was…felt any disrespect, I’m truly sorry for that. I never meant to disrespect anybody.”
On the leaked nude pictures of himself:
“That was shrinkage for me.”
On Bette Middler’s tweet about his father’s response to the nude pictures:
“This Britt Meddler. I don’t even know who that is, honestly.”
On his surprise at being told that his tearful performance at the MTV VMA awards attracted less attention than Nicki Minaj calling out Miley Cyrus’s comments about her in a New York Times article on stage:
“I honestly thought my crying was more talked about.”
Shortly before being lifted via a harness into the air and out of view after a performance of ‘What do You Mean’ at the VMAs:
“Life is a journey. Sometimes a battle, full of the unexpected. Sometimes we focus on the destination, and forget to focus on that journey. But when you fall, it allows you to get up stronger. It allows you to lean not on your own understanding.”
