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Justin Bieber is acknowledging that he was a “bad influence” for a time, and that even though he’s changed his behavior, people “just want to keep seeing me fall.”
Bieber makes the candid admission in an interview with Elvis Duran. The superstar sat down with the radio personality on Monday, and their chat will be broadcast on Friday’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” which airs on Z100 and is syndicated nation-wide. While the main point of the sit-down was to discuss Bieber’s new single, “What Do You Mean,” the conversation delved into some pretty deep topics.
Reflecting on some of his controversial past, Bieber says, “I mean, maybe I’m a bad influence, but for me I was like, ‘No, I’m going to do this until I feel like I shouldn’t be doing this.’ Maybe I was wrong, but that’s how I learn, and I feel like I’m much better for it.” He goes on to crack, “Would I do anything different? I would probably stay away from Miami.”
Miami, of course, was the site of Bieber’s infamous arrest last year. But over the last eight months or so, the singer has been working hard at rehabbing his image. It was a change that happened not through the repeated urging of the people in his life, but after Bieber himself had an epiphany. “It has to be on you. You have to make the conscious effort, because for me, so many times it was good people coming in my life and tugging at me, but I wasn’t ready,” he explains.
Bieber continues, “They’re like, ‘Justin, come on.’ But I wasn’t ready to take that leap and be like, ‘Okay, this is what I want to change, this is who I am, and this is not who I am.’ It takes moments of clarity to be like, ‘Oh, that’s why I’m not like this. That’s why I shouldn’t do this.'”
But now that Bieber has streamlined his life and the people in it, he’s still facing challenges. “I just want to be around people who I feel are supporting me, uplifting me, and making sure I’m the best version of myself, because there are so many people in this industry who just want to keep seeing me fall,” he tells Duran, further confessing that he has trust issues.
While the former child star doesn’t name-names, the 21-year-old admits, “I’ve trusted people who I probably shouldn’t have trusted before and they’ve hurt my heart. I’m a pretty sensitive guy, so I’ll lay it all on the line, and they’ll kind of pull it. So now I’m figuring out there’s certain people I can’t do that with.” And yet, Bieber advises, “Don’t let someone who ruined your trust ruin that next person’s chance to gain that trust. I think I let that affect me and change the way I looked at people for a while.”
The star further says to Duran, “There’s so many beautiful and amazing people who will encourage you, who will love you, who will not judge you. But I didn’t see that because I completely put myself over here. I still have moments where I’m like, ‘Yeah, people suck.’ And then I’ll have those moments of like, ‘No, people are awesome, and this is why I do what I do in the first place.'”
Gossip Cop will have video of Bieber’s interview on Friday. TELL US: What do you think of the quotes released so far?
