The Bert Show is a radio show on Q100 in Atlanta, GA and started in March 2001.
July 29, 2009
June 22, 2009
Transcript
Part 1
Bert Weiss: Well dude how are you, man?
Usher: Oh man I can't complain man
Bert: I can't wait to get into this kid and you to talk about this but it's busy time for you right now.
Usher: Yeah man, just- Justin now, he's been all over the place man. Just uh yeah we've been actually haven't been able to be there with him everywhere he's been but I, I have been doing phone calls that we've been kind of grounded, working on his record right now. I just come back in Los Angeles, California and getting ready for the show. He had his first show…
Justin: Yeah in Kansas.
Usher: …in Kansas City. He killed it.
Co-host: You talk about how Justin is multi-talented. Is there any young talent that you have probably discouraged from getting in the music business because of it's not just about the music?
Usher: Um, probably my own children.
Bert: Really?
Usher: Yeah, I mean you know this music business can be very taxing on your on your you know your relationships and for the most part I want to be supportive for whatever my children do, both of them, all of them but you know I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend it. This is the first thing you go after, especially for family.
Bert: We had Jada Pinkett Smith on last week and she said that they were encouraging their kids to be in the industry and we were all a little surprised.
Usher: They're from Hollywood tho man.
Bert: Is that different?
Usher: Yeah
Bert: Is it different…
Usher: Hollywood is different man.
Bert: Yeah?
Usher: Yeah yeah yeah. I mean especi[ally], they have such talented kids. Have you seen it, their kids? Like…
Bert: Yeah, they're great.
Usher: They're incredible…
Bert: Yeah.
Usher: …actors. I mean Usher, he's just a screamer right now. [everyone laughs] If I see potential, I would definitely encourage him. He's just screaming an hour.
Co-host: If he's screaming on (?) then…
Bert That's a really good point. Let's say someday he is singing in the house. You know and you're like "What is that?" and you walk into the room and you're like "Oh no this is too bad he's got some talent here". Are you going to try to nourish or are you just gonna say "Uhh, try something else".
Usher: Well kids they basically pick up everything that you do. You know I found myself in the car ride and I'm know dancing or whatever I look back and he's doing the same thing. That was a genuine moment of life. Children may you know, I make my life a lot more meaningful.
Bert: Yeah.
Usher: You know everything that I've done obviously have done to accumulate wealth. You know and also be great at what I did but when you have children. It just changes your perspective life but more than anything it's just singing around them, being me. They pick up little things so if he sees me dancing of course he's gonna do that. One day you may all of a sudden just decided to become an artist if he does or if Naviyd or Usher decide to become artists I'll be supportive but I wouldn't say "This is what you have to do, this is what you should do", you know.
Bert: is that… Are you nervous about protecting them from press and media because even though this isn't Hollywood maybe worse because it's Atlanta so we don't have as much celebrity as like an LA so when we have it.
Usher: That's one of the beautiful parts about being in Atlanta, not to worry about the paparazzi (?) all that as much, have a little bit, have a sense of normalcy here. You know, and that's really what I want for my kids. I don't want them to be you know forced to live a lifestyle that you know I built.
Bert: Right.
Usher: You know, when I'm in LA it's a different story (?) get off the plane (?).
Bert: Will you keep the kids away from LA for that reason?
Usher: Uh, I try to keep them away from cameras.
Bert: Yeah.
Usher: Yeah. I try to keep them away from the cameras.
Co-host: Do you have to get into with a paparazzi dude?
Usher: Uh no no no, I mean that's… You know, I'm not that guy.
Co-host: I imagine you could be though if you got you know a two-year-old hanging out and somebody shows a camera in their ace and you're like "hey it's my kid, you know" Back off like I would that'd be enough range for me.
Usher: Yeah.
Co-host: Even if you're not…
Co-host: But that's what they want you to do.
Usher: Yeah.
Co-host: That's what the paparazzi want you to freak out.
Usher: I mean, it hasn't happened yet.
Ber:t Is it, do you think it's gonna be tougher for you to find professional piece or personal piece?
Usher: Um, I mean I think I'll be good across the board.
Bert: Yeah?
Usher: Yeah. I'm a calm guy. I'm not gonna let too much upset me. [smiles]
Bert: You always are smiling.
Usher: I gotta have to smile.
Bert: Yeah, you do have a lot to smile about. You do.
Usher: Have you seen my kids, man?
Bert: I haven't, you keep them very well hidden. I haven't.
[everyone laughs]
Co-host: And even if he had, he's not going to admit it now. He's like 'uh huh, no pictures, nothing".
Bert: No, I know what you mean.
Usher: No man, we have a good time, man. Here in Atlanta we go to King's Own ,we do all kind of stuff here, man. Have a good time.
Bert: At the end of the day you know "I've got two kids also" and at the end of the day when there's all this stuff going around you know it's always blown up more for you than it is going to be for somebody like me but at the end of the day when you open up the door you got two kids there. Everything, it stops at the door.
Usher: Absolutely.
Bert: It does.
Usher: Yeah man, they throw those arms I bet you like "Daddy, daddy". No matter what, what's been going on in your life they look at you and they just give you just such hope you like man I'm cool.
Co-host: Do you feel confident that you guys will be able to co-parent despite your differences with your two kids?
Usher: Absolutely.
Co-host: Yeah.
Usher: Wherever it goes it goes.
Co-host: Yeah.
Bert: Well some families…
Usher: Well I'm saying look.
Bert: There's some families that can't do. Like I look at mine. My parents couldn't do it and my wife's parents could do it when they got divorced.
Usher: yeah.
Bert: You know. [Usher smiles]
Co-host: Just smiling.
Co-host: There's that smile those talk about it. You got the smile.
Co-host: I'm curious if if you are confident with love and romance and if you think you might ever get married again.
Usher: Oh well, I mean you got the way (?).
Co-host: Okay. So you're not closing the door on and forget.
Usher: What way do I have to say?
Bert: Now you're asking them questions that would have been tough for you to answer…
Co-host: Of course.
Bert: …after your divorce also.
Co-host: I know, I know. I've been through. It's impossible to say the right thing at this time so but I think you're such a romantic and your songs are romantic and your music is romantic. You got to give your feelings hope.
Co-host: Are you proposing? [everyone laugsh]
Co-host: Justin's like "hey maybe I'll just go back to high school".
Bert: No, Justin Bieber… We don't need to hope this on you, man.
Usher: What's going on?
Justin: It's like dude.
Bert: Yeah, you're definitely here so let me play a couple of commercials and when we come back we want Usher to do the official introduction to Atlanta to Justin here because this kid is gonna blow up and he's already blown up on the internet when Scooter was telling me that this kid has nine million hits, I'm like dude you got the numbers wrong. Are you somehow someway figured out a way to jack with YouTube.
Justin: I have 38 million views on YouTube.
Bert: Sorry bro, sorry.
Bert: So we're gonna introduce you to who has one video that does have like 10 million he's got another one that has 4 million. Everything this kid does that he puts up on the internet doesn't get anything less than 500,000 hits so Usher knew it. He's like "This kid has talent".
Usher: So we have these fans to thank for that you know. Subscribers thank you guys so much for investing. These are the days that you're gonna that that make him who he is and we're very very appreciative they were actually 30 young ladies downstairs excited to see him, all these guys down there listening. Tthank you for showing up.
Bert: All right we're gonna play some Justin Bieber for ya. We're gonna find out where he's from, how Usher found him.
Usher: Yeah.
Bert: There's another a-list celebrity that saw what Usher saw and Usher said "ah no you keep your hands off that kid, this one is mine". Yeah I tell you who it is next tune…
The Bert Show Q100 at 99.77
Part 2
[One Time playing in the background]
Bert: Justin is living here in Atlanta now and Usher (?) saw how many hits he was getting on YouTube and Usher said "okay this is a kid that I need to get involved with the media" I was just telling Justin you hit the Usher lottery.
Justin: [laughs] Yeah.
Bert: When this dude decide to back you, you hit the lottery.
Justin: Yeah.
Bert: It's so awesome. So how does it all start?
Justin: Oh well, it actually started about three years ago.
Usher: Yeah.
Justin: I entered the singing competition and my friends and family that couldn't make it wanted to see me. So my mother and I posted videos on YouTube for my friends and family and just, it just happened that other people started liking it and viewing it and subscribing and pretty soon I hit the million mark and then I posted more videos.
Co-host: You know it happened, you just put a video online and then...
Justin: [laughs] And then I started posting more videos and more videos and then, and then it got getting more crazy and then Scooter Braun my manager found me on YouTube. Flew me out to Atlanta.
Co-host: Scooter, how long you been looking for little boys on the internet?
[everyone laughs]
Usher: Wow, you owe him what Scoot. (?)
Bert: Alright, so Scooter finds you on the internet.
Justin Bieber: On the internet. And flies me out to Atlanta. Where I almost missed Usher. Tell him.
Usher: Where he almost missed me. He came to the studio, Scooter brought him at to Jermaine's Studio and he's like "Man, I I sing I sing your songs. You wanna hear one?". And I'm like "You should come in, little buddy. It's cold out here.".
Justin: He meets all these people everyday who want to sing for him so.
Bert: Did you know who he was?
Usher: No.
Bert: At the time?
Usher: I didn't know who he was.
Bert: Oh okay, so Scooter was telling you "Look I got a meeting set up with Usher right now, no problem"
Usher: No it was actually, to be honest it was a little odd for me. I knew he was probably there meeting with Jermaine so I didn't want to block. So I was just like [rubs nose] and I never told you this. You guys weren't cool so didn't dig anyway.
[everyone laughs]
Co-host: Is this kinda like Little Orphan Annie stuff where like Justin's in the car and scooter br(?) and you pull off and he's like "go go go, go get him, go Justin go"
Usher: No actually, as I'm walking out. I'm sorry, as I was walking in he was walking out.
Bert: Ok.
Usher: And he wanted to sing so I was like "ok well you get a chance to sing. Just come inside, it's cold." But I was really late for a session so I was um. We talked a little bit and I was like "ok, cool man well congratulations, (?) Scooter." Me and Scooter had our little conversation (?). Hooking up so I can see him in a proper setting.
Bert: And you were like "This is a proper setting for me."
Justin: He's like I'll do it right now and I'm like. Well listen, if it is meant to be, then it will happen again. And uh, it happened again luckily. I almost missed it.
Justin: He flew me back out to Atlanta where I got to meet him again and sing for him and actually the video is on YouTube. It has a million or so views.
[everyone laughs]
Bert: We get it. Okay. Ours don't, yours do. We get it.
Justin: I met Usher, I sang U Got It Bad to him so, it was cool and then a week later ended up meeting with Justin Timberlake who also wanted to sign me so.
Bert: Okay see the kid of 15 years old already understands the word leverage. See if you got two people competing for your services.
Justin: It's like a bidding war.
Bert: A bidding war. It's way better than just have one, right.
Usher: Yeah.
Bert: Well we missed something here because…
Usher: We pulled out the big check.
Bert: I know, that's what it came down to. So we're missing something here so. You're going on your way and you don't sing for Usher that day and then he brings you back out to Atlanta. What happened in that time for Usher to go okay "this is someone I got…"?
Justin: Oh he ended up, he watched my videos on YouTube.
Usher: I became one of the million.
Bert: Okay. We got a hit.
Co-host: One million.
Bert: Okay.
Justin: So it wasn't 999 thousands, 999 hundreds. I may admit it was one million.
Justin:♪ And you say that you love 'em
And you really know
Everything used to matter, don't matter no more
Like my money, all the cars
You can have it all
Flowers, cards and candy
Said I'm fortunate that I have you girl
And I want you to know that
I really adore you ♪
Co-host: Talent. Talent.
Bert: Sing it with him. Sing it with him. I want to hear you a little together. You two together.
Co-host: Have you guys started a duet yet?
Usher: Yeah, we actually talked about working, working, working on the album. You guys gotta stay tuned. Might do something really special coming out.
Bert: Oh come on, give us 30 seconds of you guys singing together right now. Come on.
Usher: No. (?)
Bert: You gotta give me something.
Usher: We gon' keep it in suspense. You guys so calm. You guys wait for it. We are actually working on his album in Atlanta. We've been working on it in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and we do plan on doing something really, really special for you guys. This is his debut album called "My World" and it will be out this fourth quarter.
Justin: Yeah. I'm actually single [laughs]
Co-host You're not married.
Justin: I'm not married
Co-host: Good, good.
Justin: I'm single. Yeah.
Co-host: Stay single.
Justin: Yeah. Single and ready to mingle.
[everybody laughs]
Bert: Boy, you have it hanging out with Usher. Hey, I wanna play this song "One Time" for you, guys.
Usher: Yeah.
Bert: Now is this being played anywhere else in the country right now?
Justin: Yeah it's playing all over yeah, a lot in Canada and a lot in up north and a lot in America.
Bert: Okay, so there's got to be something here obviously. He's getting 38 million hits on YouTube. We haven't even got in to the whole Usher, Justin Timberlake sorta you know (?) for your service which we'll get to in a second but I want you guys to hear this. This is Justin Bieber, now he's in Atlanta and the name of the song is called "One Time".
Justin: One Time.
Usher: Yeah.
♪ Aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye
Me plus you (I'ma tell you one time)
Me plus you ♪
♪ Girl I love you
I'ma tell you one time… ♪
Bert: When you hear your music on the radio right now, what's going through your head?
Justin: I just turn it down.
Bert: Turn it down?
Co-host: Really?
Bert: Why?
Justin: It's just weird [everyone laughs] to hear myself on the radio. I like to hear when it like first is duh duh duh, I crank it but then like yeah. I get… It's just weird.
♪ Shawty right there
She's got everything I need ♪
Bert: When did you finally get used to hearing your own music on the radio?
Usher: I'm still not used to hear my own music on the radio.
Justin: What do you do when a tip comes on, do you like?
Usher: I'm like man is it my song or who is this?
[everyone laughs]
Justin: It's good.
Bert: Are you really…?
Usher: I start calling and requesting it.
Bert: Tell us about this whole thing between this Justin Timberlake thing. He gets a hold of by Justin Bieber here.
Usher: You know what? Um a lot, there were a few people who had been introduced to Justin and Justin Timberlake was one of the many people. There's other celebrities who are interested in it as well but um Justin, I guess he flew him out to Los Angeles and you guys hung out, play guitar together. What else have you guys done?
Justin: Uh, we watched March Madness.
Usher: Yeah, he really put in the work.
Bert: He did.
Usher: He was really trying to go hard on me.
Bert: This is like being a recruit (?).
[everyone laughs]
Usher: March Madness. And it was his birthday weekend and I'm like cool. Aight, aight. Okay, alright. I got some for that. We go in (?) you know
Justin: And we did go on (?) too
Usher: And I beat him.
Bert: Did you?
Justin: They gave him a faster car, it was not fair.
Bert: You know you (?) him off.
Justin: They are, oh this is Usher, let's super his car a little bit.
Co-host: Listen, Justin until you got a couple arms under your belt, always let Usher win.
Co-host: Let's go with that kid.
Bert: So Justin Timberlake is jockeying for the kid and then at the end of the day what do you do for him to be convinced that you're really the guy.
Usher: You know what I had a really really great heart to heart with Scooter about his future and just made the promise that I would definitely you know, give it my all and I felt like it was a project that you know as (?) I felt like it was something I wanted to be associated with and at long-term I really felt like I had all what it would take to help to nurture him and make him the artist that he is gonna become.
Usher: You know, hopefully this first album will definitely, it'll give you know the little girl something else to look at other than the Jonas Brothers.
[everyone laughs]
Bert: Do you look at them like they're competition like I'm so much better than those dudes.
Justin: No, I don't really think about that but I think about…
Usher: (?) competition.
Justin: Competition pfft [smiles]
Usher: Wut.
Justin: What is competition? What does that mean?
Usher: Right.
[everyone laughs]
Justin: This is not in my vocabulary.
Usher: (?) if you lose (?), I asked him the dubby side
Bert: Has Disney even come calling yet, this is a kid we gotta have?
Justin: Yeah.
Usher: Yeah, there's actually been conversation.
Bert: Is that something you to endorse for, do you think?
Usher: Um, I definitely think that those are outlets that um maybe he should exist in… I mean being well-round is what it's all about. A young 15-year old, he would definitely work on Disney, he would work on MTV, work on Much Music of Canada, all that, all that.
Bert: Yeah but you say you get up every morning look in the mirror and say I'm the next big thing
[everybody laughs]
Co-host: (?) you got a challenge too.
Usher: Hey man, if you don't believe, nobody else will.
Co-host: Right.
Justin: Hey…
Co-host: I've been saying that in the mirror for 25 years now.
Justin: He's looking at his…
Usher: Birdman is saying that for the last how many years?
Justin: Usher…
Usher: I'm (?) the big day.
Bert: And still not (?).
Justin: Usher… Usher does, he looks in the mirror, looks at his abs and he's like "Yeah man".
[everybody laughs]
Co-host: Hey, can you. Justin, can you do um (?) an Usher (?) but you can do like an Usher impersonation
Justin: Oh I got "Yeah man."
[everybody laughs]
Justin: "Yeah man."
[Usher smiles]
Bert: Alright yall, thanks for coming to the studio. Good luck Justin, Usher. Alright
Usher: Always Bert. Thank you man, thank you so much.
The Bert Show Q100 at 99.7