The revelatory NME cover feature, for which writer Tom Howard met Justin Bieber to talk Gandhi, child stardom, Amy Winehouse and the singer’s recent reputation for bad behaviour, was also accompanied by a killer photo shoot. These are the outtakes.
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We spent two hours in a five-star hotel room with Bieber. Naturally he whipped out the skateboard.
Legendary NME photographer Dean Chalkley stuck on a playlist during the shoot, which he told Biebs to turn off if it became annoying. Bieber immediately turned it off and played his own new record, ‘Purpose’.
Although he lamented press intrusion into his life, Bieber kept everything in perspective. “If I wanna do this, there’s gonna be darkness thrown at me,” he said.
Biebs reckoned his bad behaviour caused a ruckus because he was being held up to an unreasonably high standard: “I was a wholesome pop star who was so amazing who had nice hair and a fucking image that no one could ever live up to… If you see Ghandi roll up a blunt, it’s different to seeing Ryan Gosling roll up a blunt. You wouldn’t give Ryan Gosling a hard time.”
Bieber’s still no angel, having walked out of a radio appearance and live performance since the interview. But he’s philosophical about the rigours of stardom, telling our reporter: “I’m alive, and that’s all that matters”.
