FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

This Justin Bieber Interview Sure Is Something

Buckle up, the 24-year-old pop icon and his new wife Hailey Baldwin to talk about religion, marriage, and celibacy in a pretty ridiculous 'Vogue' profile.
JT
Chicago, US
Justin Bieber, Hailey Baldwin

Justin Bieber has had a surprisingly quiet past couple of years, career-wise. He stopped touring in 2017, hasn’t released a new album since 2015’s Purpose, and didn’t spend any of that time eating burritos sideways. That’s probably because Bieber’s personal life has settled down. He recently married model Hailey Baldwin after a whirlwind 12 week romance. And now, he’s more likely to be photographed inside a hip megachurch next to a bespectacled streatwear-clad pastor than out partying.

Advertisement

In his first press sit-down in years, the recently wed Canadian along with his newly-Canadian spouse chatted with Vogue in a roller-coaster interview about married life and a hell of a lot of ridiculous other things. Among the topics discussed include Bieber’s pre-marriage celibacy, his dislike of group-therapy séances, his repeated use of the phrase “baby boo,” why doesn’t consider himself religious, and why Justin is “the emotionally unstable one” in the marriage. It was, conservatively speaking, a lot.

Writer Rob Haskell manages to cover a lot of ground in the profile, including revealing details like Baldwin, 22, saying of her recent marriage, “The thing is, marriage is very hard. That is the sentence you should lead with. It’s really effing hard.” He also observes Bieber eating grapes and potato chips in the same bite. Below, read some of the most “hmm”-inducing quotes from the feature and be sure to read the whole thing here.

Bieber, who attends a church that has a history of anti-LGBT views , on religion:
“I wouldn’t consider myself religious. That confuses a lot of people because they’re like, Well, you go to church. I believe in the story of Jesus—that’s the simplicity of what I believe. But I don’t believe in all the religious elitism and pretentiousness, like people are better than you because they come to church, like you have to go to church and dress a certain way. I get sensitive when religion comes up because it’s been so hurtful to a lot of people. I don’t want to be thought of as someone who stands for any of the injustice that religion has done and does do.”

Advertisement

Bieber, who is 24, on adolescence:
“I think we can be married and still have fun and enjoy our adolescence. That’s something we’re talking about.”

Bieber on emotion and needing a baby boo:
“I’m the emotionally unstable one. I struggle with finding peace. I just feel like I care so much and I want things to be so good and I want people to like me. Hailey’s very logical and structured, which I need. I’ve always wanted security—with my dad being gone sometimes when I was a kid, with being on the road. With the lifestyle I live, everything is so uncertain. I need one thing that’s certain. And that is my baby boo.”

Bieber on sex:
“[God] doesn’t ask us not to have sex for him because he wants rules and stuff. He’s like, I’m trying to protect you from hurt and pain. I think sex can cause a lot of pain. Sometimes people have sex because they don’t feel good enough. Because they lack self-worth. Women do that, and guys do that. I wanted to rededicate myself to God in that way because I really felt it was better for the condition of my soul. And I believe that God blessed me with Hailey as a result. There are perks. You get rewarded for good behavior.”

Bieber on Xanax:
“I found myself doing things that I was so ashamed of, being super-promiscuous and stuff, and I think I used Xanax because I was so ashamed. My mom always said to treat women with respect. For me that was always in my head while I was doing it, so I could never enjoy it. Drugs put a screen between me and what I was doing. It got pretty dark. I think there were times when my security was coming in late at night to check my pulse and see if I was still breathing.”

Josh Terry is a writer in Chicago. Follow him on Twitter.