[Music] music has been a source and a space where I can be creative when I am most authentic to what I actually feel rather I have a hit record or not I have to believe that it's about something other than just a moment it's your first solo album in 8 years was it always the intention to take that kind of time or is that just life life life is what it's all about it's what inspires the music it's what pushes
somebody to to do something new user has been pushing himself for 30 years and finds himself only now taking to the world's biggest stage to be a Super Bowl halftime show headliner requires ultimate dedication and focus there is no time to reflect after the Big Show for Usher only time to get married and talk about the future so I'm walking you into kind of the the space that I like to create in I
normally like find a building yeah and this one actually was really great cment um a complex they have like Stadium space or either baseball film in the back got an entire theater here I think at when they were working out uh Hamilton they kind of came in here and did some work there's some sometimes stage place but I turned this into like a studio so you see all my my gear all
of my drums and keyboards so we just kind of produc and and been working on the sound here for the tour we actually haven't even started on music for the tour wow but everything that I wanted to do for uh Super Bowl required live instrumentation so I really wanted to make it like great and work through every detail so we took it into a theater we literally played it in here so we have the past present future kind
of idea and you have the natural rever and you have the essence of what it's going to feel like but the essence the whole idea of the performance was to represent past present and future past because of the celebration of all the music and the intimacy throughout the years those moments that only my fans would know about the present given the fact that we've had had this success in
Las Vegas and you know at 101 shows 100 shows sold out from The Residency between Dolby live and Caesar's Palace now I leave this Las Vegas experience with the biggest Crescendo ever playing the Super Bowl on into the future now going ready to get to the next level I got to start preparing for it the tour you're right but this is the kind of environment I like to create in I feel it's a beautiful narrative for us to
dive in we've never I feel like in a way we've been building up to something like this cuz we've had enough virtual conversations we've done stuff in studio it's been great but to be able to just sit down on a couple flight cases cases you know with your name on the side yeah man I always think that must be one of the greatest moments in any artist career when someone calls you up and shows you a picture or brings you in a
room and you see your name on the side of a flight case not just because it represents the fact that you're building infrastructure around your talent your passion but because these things are about to travel yeah so it's like well my name is about to travel where is this going to go where hasn't this been right it's a crazy thing where I'm renting these is actually in tape you know what I'm
saying these have gone nowhere actually they're going to go somewhere though I you know what it live the truth in the way of a good story man you know just sit in the Su has an emotional resonance to it you're like I know this thing cost 30 bucks an hour yeah man we rent these joints no but but something about you right something about the texture of these cases they remind us of the live experience and how
important that is something about being in an environment where you actually um do the thing inspires me that's why you know I built the entire uh Super Bowl stage in the other room which I'm going to I'm going to show you before you leave but to be able to be here where I have performed for my audience throughout the years I get the feeling it's not just about going in the studio in the booth by the way I have that
booth that I travel everywhere with where I record any vocals and stuff and my Engineers they're over there and they they they record me yeah it's crazy I've never seen that before I've never seen a sitting sitting on a stage like this it's like Doctor Who it's like 's world you know what I'm saying like you walk through this door and like you walk through an entire Dimension you know
what I'm saying what the hell yeah this is my booth oh my God you just go in here and it's like hey I need to redo some vocals because I think this could be better this way or whatever I'm just going to figure this out let's go and create and then just play it back it's probably less expensive than you know all of the studio sessions I mean especially if you have like an environment like this where you can just
be creative yeah such a simple addition to the experience but I've never seen anyone bring it to the stage just to capture it you must just be here you must have an idea or think something just go in there and get it done I create a world wherever I am that represents the thing that um I need right this is the musical side of it and there's the other side of it which is health and wellness I got like an entire
health and wellness Suite back there that's got a Jacuzzi it's got a cold dip it's got a infrared SAA it's got a space to work with you know you know my my trainers where we working on my body making certain that I'm you know ready you know I skate out there I have more than enough space to just stay in my zone you know I I um well health is wealth man I think that's hopefully
that's something we're figuring out as a species you know is we get pulled into all the stuff but health is wealth health is wealth and affirmations come by way of your belief you know our belief systems are either you know the idea that we have a thought you know that in some way becomes a belief mhm and then that belief leads to a pattern a pattern that either tells you you're going to go one way that may be
perceived as negative or positive but you know that pattern becomes a lifestyle this lifestyle is wor accommodating to how I create so I am always looking for the space to do so in Cashman complex you know they really did a great job of preserving this place to be able to welcome people like myself and I've even have brought people in here and had listening sessions you know what I'm saying like literally played
the music music just to really get the feel cuz it's not just hearing it it's it's also to being immersed in it and that's the one thing that Vegas offered me it offered me an opportunity to to bring people closer to my music having mive experience because we lost that Nuance in some way right we've lost the Nuance because everything is quick release on my version of it I heard and was inspired but I chose to make this
but wait a minute what about the artist and where they were going we've also lost to some degree that sense of um and this isn't for every artist and for every fan but a lot of times especially when quarantine everything opened up again it felt like everyone was out on the road yeah and then as a fan it's hard to pick and choose what I'm going to do you know I want to go to all of it
but I can't afford it or I don't have the time or this this this by doing the the Vegas experience you you encourage people to come to you MH arms open ready to have an an experience an event you vened the Usher experience away from like this arena in this town this arena in this town and reset that for you to be able to go back and do it your way yeah well luckily um there was an audience that um I've been building over
30 years that was willing to get on a plane come to Las Vegas and treat themselves and allow me to curate an experience that hopefully they would remember you I've only heard about the stories of what Frank Sinatra and rat pack and all of them did in those times and even the history of some of the areas that were very close to this I don't know if you know about uh the Mulan Rouge which is an integrated
casino that allowed Black Performance performers to be able to perform and also to frize and and be social with the people who they were performing with that place is right down the street so I'm inspired not just by this place but the idea that we can create with no Mars in this time so I came to Las Vegas and just tried everything that I wanted to try got a little bit of history that said man this city has completely turned
into something else where our culture is respected our culture is celebrated I now see AR R&B artists now making their way here in a different way not to say that there haven't been R&B artists that came before but it's respected in a different way especially when you have a 100 soldout shows it says oh wait a minute there's an audience that has been underserved and so long as you can give
them something that is worth their time and their money and their investment then great um but I just opened my mind man and I said I want to try I want to try all the things I've always wanted to do and I want to represent all of the people whom I felt came to this city and did amazing things rather it was Sammy Davis Jr you know rather it was Bill Cosby rather it was Flip Wilson rather
it was the Jackson 5 any any of those people who decided to come here and just I mean the Jackson 5 had a variety show back here you know what I'm saying so this to me seemed like a place where I could spread my wings you know I talk to you about the fact that I'm an independent artist now so I don't have to necessarily do things the exact same way that I've done them my entire 30-year career I can now be a newti
artist and just imagine and when you do that you pay it forward you invest in your idea this can happen so I'm hoping that this gives hope to that 40y old artist or that 45 I'm 45 years old right 45 year old artist who is like well how am I going to make a hit record man just invest back into the thing that you love if you have fans and you dedicate yourself to creating something that brings them into your experience
hopefully they'll come hopefully they'll support you hopefully they still out there that's the key I think I think that is 100% the secret that you figured out which was getting yourself out of that rhythm of album tour and by tour I mean where am I and what arena is this and who sponsors it and where am I going all that is really important and it's a great way to connect with fans and it's
revenue and it's part of the structure but it is a cycle and getting back to what you've been saying that idea of it's about connection it's always been about connection between the art and the fan the musician and the fan and you were able to really meaningfully reconnect with your audience which then instills in you surely that purpose of like I have more to say yeah more to do was there a moment before Vegas where
even you were questioning what the future felt like not whether you would continue to do it but just what it was yeah of course I mean I think all of us do and there kind of a time stamp on how successful you will be and for how long until you get to that place where um you begin to Pivot you either go into other Industries or you try to find other ways to be able to provide for your family
yeah I thought about all of those things but music has been a source uh and a space where I can be creative when I am most authentic to what I actually feel and rather that's curating discovering and developing artist um curating and developing and collaboration with other people around you know ideas be it producing things I've never allowed myself to feel as though you know the standards that were for everyone else
applied to me uh because you know whether I have a hit record or not I have to believe that it's about something other than just a moment if it was love between us and we managed to create something you know a a connection fan to artists then you're going to take this journey with me you are taking this journey with me when I was 18 maybe you were two if I was 18 you were 13 or you
were 12 and now that I'm 30 years old now you you know you're growing older your experiences are are different so now 40 years old it's like oh my God there's a person who feels exactly the way that I do in terms of telling their story so me being able to still share it and knowing that that's an audience in music that um is ready and you know available to receive what I have to offer I'm grateful man um but though
there are those things those roadblocks that could be there for yourself I just never allowed myself to look at any glass that had water in it it's half empty I always decided to say it's half full and if I just put a little bit more time in it maybe I can get it to the rim you know what I'm saying the cup floweth over right now man it's beautiful thing I mean it's I'm working on it you know
what I'm saying you're working for sure I don't want a cup I want a jug you know what I'm saying give me a jug I want to take whatever has been in that cup and like empty it and Big's one of my favorite songs on the album I should have seen that coming you know I think about how special stages are let's just go back like way back for a second that idea of a young person stepping on a stage
getting a taste of that experience for the first time what it is to step on wood in a shape in a direction of an audience and feel something y can you take yourself back to what it was like the first or one of the first times you really felt at home on a stage yeah I mean I can God bless my Uncle George he built me my first age and I was raised primarily by elderly people so after school I would go to my aunt and my
Uncle George's house so he was he was an encouraging man he loved to build with his hands he I was working in the backyard and he said you know son there anything that you really want I'll build it for you and I was like I want a stage and he was like okay I'm going to build you a stage he built me a little platform stage and I'll never forget stepping on that thing and there's nobody in the backyard but I just felt
like I'm activated because I'm standing at this High position and I get a chance to enjoy myself and in shock people look at me look at what I can do I couldn't dance or any of that stuff I probably couldn't even sing but the reality is I just felt like I got something special in this moment and then I think it was the auditorium at dwood High School uh in Chattanooga Tennessee I never forget
seeing this group called the new beginning of which I ended up being in that group perform and I was like there it is that's what I want to do I want to perform for an audience because I saw how the audience reacted to what they were doing they were tumbling they were flipping they were singing they were dancing they were positive they weren't like the things that I was looking at outside gang bangers issues with family
it wasn't any of those things it's like a positive outlet and I was like yo that right there is something that makes sense that stage that's similar to that little stage that I had but it also too was an opportunity to make people feel something from what you do and I felt like hey if I work hard like that I could make people enjoy what gift I think I now have recognized I sing songs
on the radio but imagine if I could sing those songs on that stage to them and make them feel something how did you I'm glad you mention work hard enough because I think it's one of those things when people see people succeed in entertainment or in the Arts mhm the language is always your dreams came true cool of course the dreams came true but there's no substitute for the work that
been put in to get it done yeah man if you really want uh great results and you have to be willing to push yourself there has to be no limit that you're not willing to push yourself to I'm motivated by incredible iconic leaders like Michael Jordan you know I've only heard how much of a tyrant he was but I look at the success that he was and I don't look at just his wins I look at the moments where he declined came back
and then push through I look at the the games that he lost but how hard he played I look at the fact that he wanted to raise the standard and as a result of how hard he worked he goes down as the greatest basketball player of all time those are the people whom I've been motivated by I'm motivated by people like you know Ali you know not just his political stance but also to how
unwavering he was and Unapologetic how he would say that other people would have been killed For You Know Jack Johnson not being able to really articulate us that in those times they didn't even have film where you could talk right but just seeing the defiant this man who had to go into these rings and fight and defend himself but he was breaking through a standard this man gold teeth it's not what you would think
that a boxer would look you know what I'm saying you know Michael Jackson these people who were defiant in creating uh a new standard being motivated and inspired by great performers of the past like Jackie Wilson um James Brown James Brown you know all of those people they were trying to change Little Richard changing a standard changing the Viewpoint of how you Prince you know Marvin Gay right
coming through a system and an idea people like that became inspirational to me because I knew I would have this Arc in my life where I would have ups and downs but just like them they didn't allow it to determine who they were they continued to stay consistent and as you said you know really have an incredible work ethic and uh discipline to become recognized and celebrated for what they did I mean all the otss in that list all
the human beings in that list have got to a point either in their now or moved on passed on yeah meaning that it really is Legend and Legacy that we all learn from now stories performances archive you actually are at a point in your life where you got to connect with some of these people you got to to be around the genius yep Prince yep Michael Jackson yep James Brown yep three of the
greatest performers of all time all time and three artists that you got to connect with yeah I put Luther there because he was special Le is very special magical you know and he also too had um a great sensibility about storytelling in the way that he's saying can I just go through cuz it's very rare I'm going to sit opposite somebody at the prime of their career who can actually reflect on those artists yeah not just
an archive mhm can we just talk about those experiences or even just some learnings you took from that or what it was to be around those people yeah you got to ask Stevie Wonder in there too by the way cuz some of the funniest I ever experienced happened with Stevie that dude I believe he can see he has some of the greatest ears that I've ever heard in my life but hanging out of this house yeah and him
listening to me ran about things that I'm you know just dealing with and it's just like he just he was like the uncle that I always wanted to have um but anyway you asked about Michael Michael Jackson and being able to be around uh him in New York City just before it was 9:10 the day before 911 We performed at Madison Square Garden doing the I think uh 30th anniversary of the Jackson 5 I think it was and I never forget like he
wanted me to do want to be starting something and I'm like all right cool got it great and they're like okay one thing last thing but you got to wear this I'm like what do you mean I can't wear what I want to wear like no no no no he wants you to wear this the dude put me in a like a fur top and like leather pants with my chest out and my stomach all that I was like Michael Jackson wants me to wear this and he
wants me to Tumble in the air I'm like they're like yeah that's what he wants you to do I'm like all right that's cool yeah that's fine you know but then I but then I meet y if you look back at it it's really funny yeah it looked like we were in a jungle uh but that was his creative nonetheless we ended up working uh in a studio uh where the majority of the dancers and performers were there
and we did a run through and every take I would sing at the top of my lungs he would like you're singing like yeah of course this is preparation he's like that's really hard to do and I respect your talent that is a very hard thing to do that is not easy like I know I got it from you after the performance we met up and just kind of hung out he gave me this really really cool uh piece from
the victory tour he uh as just a gift he wanted me to have it um I seen this jacket in his closet I was like y can I get that jacket he's like you can't have that but but um I'd ask you got of course if you don't ask you don't know you know and then a few times of being able to check in and out with him throughout his life phone conversations where we just talk about you know an idea we talked about an idea working
together when he had philanthropic Concepts and ideas he wanted me to come to New York City at Giant stadium and be on stage with him for a philanthropy thing that he had U but what it was a celebration of his music as well it's a lot of fun never quite made it to uh Neverland but you know he was just always a a Fantastical kind of dude and always created like an experience wherever he was you just felt his energy
and I picked up on that which is part of the reason as I said when I work I like to be in environments that actually speak to what I'm trying to create as opposed to trying to conjure an energy and do it um I try to be there it's a bit of an investment but it's worth it and that's what I decided to do for my fans I do that so that it's authentic for them um Prince hung out with Prince
um once believe it or not I was one of the few artists my age to perform at gland slam uh early on this is back when you know I was trying to figure out who I was where I was promoting my first album got a chance to perform at this club and this thing used to be packed to the rim I mean people everywhere I'm trying to figure out how the not even in here I was I was of age but but um just but just of age but no it was it
was cool because I was almost like accepted into this world and they didn't see me like a little kid yeah um and I'll never forget performing for an audience by the way that knew none of my songs but I managed to to get them aroused and get them into this performance um and I look up and like about where where those lights are there I see him in the corner my eye and he's just looking down like this and as I'm
doing my performance I can see him like just clapping he's not up there with anybody he's literally watching me and the audience is here and I could just see him I oh that's Prince up there I run out the stage y what's that Prince he like yeah he's up there in the white suit like y That's crazy later on uh in life we met at his house uh will am was there I think Justin timberl was there
tons of people in this industry party um at his he just have these parties his house but he didn't party with us so he's literally like sitting at his dining room table and I managed to like Jimmy my like the dining room table is probably just about as big as the room and the chairs are so tight so I'm trying to get inch over there to get close so I sit down and we talk and he's like you know man um I really respect
what you're doing I like I'm one of your biggest fans in terms of you know but why have we ever not done a Rec why haven't we done a record together he's kind of chuckled and I was like man you the he was you can't curse in my house yeah he wasn't a fan of that I was like okay my bad I just want you to know how I feel about you man I really think that you're amazing arti he's like yeah the
walls start to shake I was like the walls literally start to shake they he like yeah yeah just the vibrations is bad so start understand oh wow this is about something more than just music there's a vibration an idea of what you're doing and the artist is completely in it which probably why he was away and didn't want to be you know cutely sensitive yeah but he wanted to have you know and and maybe there was
this conflict in some way between you know his religion his beliefs cuz he was a you know Jehovah's Witness but he loved to have the energy there and sometimes that conflict can be a lot for us you know the reality of who we are and what we love versus what we think or what we serve uh and not wanting to be bad or um inappropriate yeah but um I was just like yeah man you know they
down no I'm just saying it's cool I just but in your creb I'm sorry just wol C in I just want you to know we going this this it's going to be a an earthquake out here know I'm saying no but um no but that's my print story um who else did you ask me about James Brown James Brown and the reason why I brought out these three is because I can't think of anybody who's performing on a stage as big as you with a new
album coming out and and and a sold out toour that's here that got time with these I mean that's triumphant right there yeah yo man to be seen by those people and given the time in their presence to hear what they had to say to me or either what they offered just being who they were was so helpful because it really did inform my understanding of what Legacy not only looks like but what you do to preserve
Legacy and sometimes it's a very um um hard place to be because it feels lonely U but you know God doesn't make mistakes and sometimes he does ordain those who have to walk a path that is sometimes very singular and if you manage to find good people that you can have around you and you can honestly authentically be who you are uh then it's good I try my hardest to keep family close family matters to me more
than anything I told you about coming home you know the idea of that even being a part of what it is going there in a second life has changed did you feel seen by James Brown I felt seen by all of them but really seen by James Brown so in the process of preparation for our performance at the Grammys by the way I didn't win album of the year that year and I'm still a little like man I don't know if there's been an
album that has actually sold as many or either men as influential as that album has been even Rolling Stones said it but it did not win album of the year that's cool St care yeah of course I mean but artists do care artists care artist care and I'm and I'm happy to see the prog that they are making and but it doesn't change the fact that we have we we have feelings and we have lived in a time
where you're supposed to be poised and conduct yourself in a certain manner but I think when you finally get to the age where you're like hey man love it or hate it this is how I feel rather you choose to do something for history not just for me or these young artists that's good but do you do things for history I did I did that day because I think that it was important that the world saw James Brown did he went a
Grammy up until that point did they see him did they know him did they recognize and celebrate him do they understand the value of who he is and why all of us are listening to hip-hop in the way that we are and listening to music and understand what the one is and understand what Funk is and the fact that funk created such an incredible like genres of music N I wanted to share that stage with him uh
but in preparation for that show you know here there I am you know I mean I'm killing myself every take you know what I'm saying we running back and forth with the band you know the dancers are there and um I got my Air Force Ones on you know what I'm saying and I'm going ham I'm like falling over he comes over to me he son you need to get you some shoes you need to get you some hard
bottoms like what yeah yeah yeah man you going to break your anle son so I'm like okay so from that day forward I realized wait a minute if you really want to get off you got to have a bit of a hard B I still get off in my sneakers you know what I'm saying but you know that was a really great one thing he always told me he said um you know if you stay ready you ain't got to get ready took that Mantra from him and I
feel like that's where we are today I feel like you've stayed ready all the way through we touched on that and I appreciate those stories everyone will love hearing those it brings us up to this moment right here which over the course of your life leads you to a really important album yep it's your first solo album in 8 years we spoke on a I love a I love the energy of a I love you as they toen together yeah but I
think you knew as well as he did that it wasn't an usher album it was like the two of you this feels very much like a a classic Usha moment I texted someone your Camp about DayDay I was like it's a classic Asha album yeah was it always the intention to take that kind of time is that just life life definitely had its uh moment with all of us um you know the six years of the five years or six
years walking up on me like that dog uh uh the five or six years that it took to U make this album wasn't because it was just like a consistent like in your mind about every song no it was a stop and the start the pandemic you know I was working with Mark pittz uh from RCA at the time and um you know we worked for years and years so you know I I was just trying to really figure out how to
tell my story and no it wasn't always positive and no I wasn't always positive as you say the preparation you know being prepared you know became very tough at you know the the end of my relationship with RCA where I would then have to really pick up all of the pieces and trying to figure out how to do this um but I didn't run I stayed in the studio I would come and go you know some very very hard things happened you know
man you know I had accidents in my life with my son you know divorce with my my ex-wife um you know just trying to find myself real life life had other plans while I was living it through right and thinking that I was running it in the right direction you know no you we all thought that we had it together until the pandemic hit but then we're going nowhere doing nothing and have to figure
out what really matters and how to survive in this moment but I I I use the music to um to at least hold some of those very valuable gems that had happened in my life and you know now I'm ready uh to share I did understand that when I you know put out the a project that it was a a buffer was a a moment and I was hoping to come back with an album really quickly after that but I just didn't feel like I wanted to I
didn't feel like uh it would be respected it would be recognized and I would be um received in the way that I think would speak to who and what I feel I represent if you go through your album titles and you if you presented that list of album titles just almost like it's own narrative before we even press play on any of them they're so honest they're all so honest you know looking for myself like clearly you were
searching for some new inspiration there and the album reflects that hard to love I mean it's not lost on anyone that that's where you left off for a while yep in order to get to coming home which has very positive sentiment to it a sense of like hey I've done some work and I'm I like where I stand as a human yeah when you look back on Hard to Love Now what were you writing about and
singing about subliminally at the time that now is far more clear to you on that record me owning my mistakes in Life or just coming to grips with the way I felt about myself even though my audience may have not necessarily felt that way I remember playing a songs from the album and I would play it for people who were real fans of mine you know trying to understand where this is coming from it
was my own personal conflict that I was going through uh and that's the way I felt I felt that I was hard to love and it could have been because uh of me trying to figure out what really mattered in life it was a lot of self-reflection that went on in that it was a lot of decision making in that singular decisions that I made on my own that had nothing to do with uh anyone else's advice or anyone else's um
opinion and it caused me to really really look deep and then take ownership of some of the things that I felt you know uh but I'm worth it is what I would say like you know I might be hard to love and you might go through a lot in us being together listen to these songs and understand what it what it means yeah you know uh it can feel like a marry goon sometimes so it's some respects that was your
confessions because confessions is is such a remarkable Masterpiece of modern R&B and soul writing it's so deep and so personal but were they even your confessions half of them do you know what I mean like it feels like was that your narrative it was it was a it was a collective Narrative of men so if we were to sit around and have a conversation about some of the things that we deal with in our relationships
some of the things that we deal with as men being vulnerable and not necessarily having an outlet I don't know how comfortable you feel talking to a therapist but I at that time didn't I love it and but at that time I didn't and by the way as a black man I was always taught to bury my feelings and not really share what I feel because somebody would use it against me if I did so I'm not going to let you get too
close you are you know somebody that could be lovely but you're a bit of a you know there there's I got to keep a little bit of a distance so um that was a great deal of mistrust and maybe generational scarring that I had to you know uh begin to unwind um I would hope that all of these albums would be perceived in success the same way that confessions was uh was hard to love confessions no I think that
it had a little bit more um wider bandwidth because I spent that time sitting with our guys having what was therapy sessions and talking about what we were going through and we could all talk about it we could all literally say well this is the part I understand man what happened about man wow that's crazy you can see the growth from confessions which was the hope of something like that right through to the actual the
reality experience yeah yeah the reality of it the belief came within you know this idea that we can fix things by finding other ways to avoid trauma yes right oh let me go get a partner and I'm not going to really deal with these issues oh let me go and find this person who I can be different than what I am because you know you won't accept me the way I am and I can't really deal with
these issues and I don't know if I can share it with you or maybe if I choose to share with you oh you're going to use it against me oh damn I shared that with you you tried to use that against me ah okay cool this is the thing right you write these songs about relationships and all of their different nuances so well it's one of the reasons millions of people listen to you on music to try to better understand yeah
themselves and how they can be better or be kinder to themselves and yet it doesn't make it any easier to honor your own relationships in real time correct corre it makes it easier to articulate what you feel sometimes uh because maybe a song is like a good book and it says well I can see myself in this character I can see myself in a narrative that's being told and may or being shared and
maybe I could take a different approach or maybe that is me and maybe I found the solution as the Voyer looking at this person's life as the you know the audience member just go left just go left and it's like no tell yourself go look in the mirror just go left you know what I'm saying or either just love yourself you don't need love from everything and everybody you there must have been moments when you laughed at
that irony a little bit because you're on stage singing songs almost like the greatest musical relationship guidance counselor there is on a stage at that moment for 10,000 people and you're behind the scenes yeah things aren't going great for you yeah at times yeah and that's I always think that's got to be really tough as an artist when the expectation of what I want as a fan on
that night for what I pay for versus what you're actually dealing with in real life my private trauma became um you know a public display right in many ways and it's like you know it's sometimes hard to like realize wait a minute this is really a traumatic thing that I'm singing about here but we all celebrating it yes and we're enjoying it and I love that because that means some real connection was there for
my fans or this was a really great song that made people just enjoy the rhythms and the the way I sang it uh but I do feel like there is a a soul at the center of it and it and it was some of the things that I've experienced confessions was a collective uh that I go through each and everything that I talked about in some way maybe not exactly the way that I chose to narrate it so that other people can identify
with it these are the types of traumatic uh bruises scars that we find in life that we have to manage to overcome you overcome them by being able to voice vocalize them affirmations we make magic with what we say if you say something negative enough times it will become true if you say something positive enough times you will find the light but you have to find the light my brother
you have to manage to to to get it out of your body and say it okay I went through this this is the truth all right love me or hate me this is where it is honey you know what I'm saying and will you love me can I have that unconditional love is that something that is a scar that is my own you know that's the reflection of life that I think I ended up going through you know when I got to looking for myself or here
I stand looking for myself and heart to love now man I am 100% like happy yeah every album is a stepping stone to coming home that's the thing even when we think about here I stand I think about that album and all the personal healing you had to do yeah and what was going on your family situation around that time as well lost my Father which I had no relationship with him my entire
life and now I'm bringing a son into the world and yet I'm not necessarily seeing what it is to have a relationship with a a male in that way I've always wanted to ask you this and I hope you take it within in the nature in which it's intended which is pure love and respect but as someone who took your father's name and became successful with your father's name but not knowing your father through a majority of that early
wave of huge success to come to a point where perhaps there's some resolution there or not how that changed the way you felt about the way we see the name Asha yeah I know and that's why I chose to do what I did the way that I did it because the definition that I had was not good enough for the five six seven eighty old I wanted to not be remembered as oh yeah that's little Usher son or
that's KY son which is what they named my dad it's like no I'm not a basketball player and no I'm not a u you know a father who or a person who abandon his child that's not who I am this is who I am and I'm going to now find my definition I'm going to manage to make this name that is awkward as hell cuz I don't know any other ushers you know I know another zann you know what I'm saying I know another Bob I know another
you know Jim bill I even know another Idis you know what I'm saying but I don't know any ushers other than one longest time I thought I was the outli with Zayn but turns out I know two other zays it's true there's a few so Usher I was like I got to manage to make this name mean something and I have to say I was blessed to have people who would profess things of positivity over my
life and they saw something in me that maybe I didn't recognize yet because God was making his way through my gifts talents yeah my optimism my like I was very happy as a kid and was always looking for like positivity and just into things and you know always trying to get more go further and try to you know no no no we can do this we can you know was a culprit trying to figure out how to move things forward but I had
family members that you know they spoke to me in a certain way my cousin Rico Spence he gave me the name big time at the age of one and nobody in Chattanooga calls me Usher they call me big time because that's my nickname so I live my entire life you know I'm big time you know you know and I believed that and something in me made me feel and he taught me hip-hop he taught me how to dance he
taught me what rap was taught me about culture taught me how to dress he taught me what it was to be a man you know I wouldn't be the man I am to this day without that one person to be honest all the other male influences that were actually fathers in a different way but he was my cousin and my cousin he taught me um what it was to to to be a solid dude and I'm thankful I'm thankful that he saw something in me and wanted me to
to be greater than the Usher that was my dad so it then gave me some motivation I was it was I was giv a like a Kickstart like big time was a Kickstart right sure that's the reason too I'm sure it's like look let's get this guy on the road in the right way well let's at least be I mean something about me obviously made him say that yeah and um you know I just I just decided I'm going to continue to
make the most of every experience that I have and make Usher mean something other than what it meant to me now I see asan now on the artwork I see I see coming home I think of this album I think of every album reflecting this Wild Wonderful Life you've LED through like you said the ups and the Downs that make a perfect narrative at the end of it all and I think what coming home must
represent to you right now is just a joy a joy to listen to yeah just the way you sound as well like the performance on this album like cold blooded like vocally like that's a raw song yeah man cold blooded cold blooded was it was really special you know I think that the dream is really a special dude agree we have a really great relationship in bond and he really pushed me he pushed me to
to to say things and and be honest and reach a place in your the way you're singing it which is like it ain't per formative it's like pure guto like honest yeah maybe I shouldn't have loved you like I did yeah just maybe I shouldn't have loved you should have stopped at a good time you know how many pretty eyes and pretty thighs I didn't seen like man just you mad at me this is the truth you know I made you feel like
it was really about you it's riveting but now I'm beginning to see a different world you know and and I'm realizing that wait a minute so you're not okay with no but you're okay with yes you're not going to hear yes all the time and you know to go from warm-hearted to cold blooded is it's a real thing it's a vicious thing that then happens in relationships and it begins to create real dissension between you know child
and parent and that's the deeper part of it but you know that that kind of um trauma is really harmful to our kids but it's a reality of what we as men deal with what our ex-wife wives or you know our ex relationships you know you know they get mad man and they're like they're just trying to kill you just like wait a minute whoa you know what I'm saying like I just want to be a man
that loves my kids and we had a beautiful moment together but it wasn't forever some things are intended for a reason a season but this wasn't a lifetime but you've been able to mature through the whole experience of falling in love from falling out of love and being able to honor your role in the in the dissolution of as well which I think is big part of it right it becomes good
but not good good so you know tying it together you know what I'm saying but there's a lot of maturity man it comes through on this record for sure and it's a very Now record for where you are in your life it would seem at 45 years old with two you know new children young yeah great partner great partner yeah great team around you yeah good relationship with your older kids yep yeah man I mean great relationship with
them even though they analyze everything that I do and tell me that I should be doing more yeah like they're the greatest anrs and also to Executives that I have it's identity forming they have to do it you know we become we play a different role for a few years as parents you know where we just become this kind of scratching post right I used to be super cool to you now you just analyze everything that I do I
can't get nothing right they'll come back around you'll hit that legendary status pretty soon but it's also got a huge amount of like Tempo and energy to it I think about a song like kissing strangers I love that song um rest in peace Bugsby who uh delivered an amazing record um I think I came up with this uh record maybe I don't know it was years ago uh and we developed worked it worked it worked it and just you know once I
was ready to put it out I wasn't willing to let it go I just feel like it's that special of a song It's a song that I think speaks to you know the world that I have been able to reach and expand to see and experience and the messaging in the song the fact that you know doing that you know kind of down period where I was single um I found myself reflecting like man how do I go from strangers kissing to kissing
strangers like you know and then it's over I'm just trying to you know sex it away I'm trying my hardest to connect it away you know maybe there's this this Vice that allows me to just forget about what I really feel uh it's a real emotion it's a real thing that I think people do experience that's destruction by Distraction there you go that's what that is yeah yeah you know and people do
it in all kinds of different ways yeah you were in it yeah I got in it and thank God I got out of it yeah how um how did I get out of it I wanted to um I wanted something I wanted a deeper connection with myself so um I disconnected from the world I kind of went away I went to uh Africa went to India I just began to you know just really reflect and and you know not necessarily take a religious Journey but
more a spiritual personal Journey a healing personal Journey did you feel invisible in a good way I did thank God uh I was able to kind of move around in some way you say feel invisible as I went there or feel invisible because I had created this Dynamic and this thing that I thought I only was no going away going away yeah uh going away yeah man um I was able to be around people who
didn't see the artist that I was yeah I was able to go and be in villages with kids who just wanted to celebrate and you know you know draw patterns on the ground and I didn't understand that culture or you know really enjoy and love you know nature we would go you know and I would just like man look at these look at these these people here they don't have all of the things that we have they literally are just happy
was it the first time in your life since you started that you either hadn't been working achieving succeeding protecting success or trying to make relationships work that was the first time that I was really taking time for myself you I um I don't remember a time that I wasn't to be honest before then did it simplify things well I just had a problem at that time being alone um I would go from relationship to
relationship to relationship never having a break uh and then that was that time I was like I don't really want to be in a relationship I just want to love me and I want to know me without the influence of someone else I'd prefer to be alone this singular moment gives me the ability to to create True Foundation to stand on and from that I built the foundation that I'm standing on now one
of them ones that song at the end classic demile you the whole thing man just those caes it must just be a joy to lean into and I managed in this career to connect to every experience just just about every experience there is and marriage is one connection and appreciation for your partner is one yeah um songs like here I stand and here I stand the album there was several of those records songs like matrimony that
I did with W was was a song like that one of them ones is a song like that it is a song that you play at that moment yeah you know um I've had thoughts uh there's no little cerebral activity going on there it's just joy and feeling right yeah that is that that moment is really about that real connection when you really found like one of them ones you know like this right here this that you know what I'm saying that's
going to have you in your feelings you know what I mean you literally you know are trying to figure out how to be great for that one because they only want you to be great they only want you to be your best self they only want you to rise to the highest of your vibration doesn't it feel like that's kind of where you are now across the board like I think about the positive energy and the good natured
response to help to the Super Bowl announcement the way that everyone flocked to Vegas for hundred shows sold out to see this the reaction I saw in Paris I just feel like everybody just kind of wants you to be at your best right like No More Drama to quote a great artist I think the world gravitates towards what they can be familiar with and everybody needs a bit of drama uh it makes it neutralizes life it it it then makes
it seem as though we're not alone because we can identify with things well we can do that on the other side as well if we choose to share it and it's all really in the idea of how you choose to um curate it right it's burn really a good song or a bad song is it about a good experience or a bad experience is confessions really a good song or a bad song it brings Joy is year really a good
or a bad song it's about you know what I'm saying so it all depends on how you choose to pick to pick it up and this place that I'm at in my life has given me enough time um to you know reflect and be able to now share those things and these songs with this album that I'm I'm offering um being able to as I said find someone a relationship that I feel um is offering true love love that is the
expectation of it is a good one m one that says I want you to be your best I want you to be at your best I want you to know who you are I don't want you to look for who you are I want you to know who you are and my partner Jen she's she's a remarkable woman um not only because she blessed me with two incredible beautiful children but also too because she loves my older boys as though they are her own she works along
daily trying to figure out how to manage the relationship between me and my ex-wife you know and my the rest of my my family you know she's mindful uh of all things and a rational thinker but you know I'm I'm very happy for the partnership that I have uh and as I said as a result of the personal work that I was able to do it then led me to a partner that was there with me all the time she was my best friend I never
thought I would have fallen in love with my best friend I did she was right there we never messed around nothing like that it literally was like wait a minute you wait a minute yes you you know um but it it uh it inspired some of the songs on this album uh that relationship has been one that I'm very very proud of and uh I'm I'm I'm very excited about our future together you're happy I'm very happy