UB Spotlight: Usher Talks To Apple Music | Coming Home, GRAMMYs + New Wife

Fresh off his instantly-iconic Super Bowl performance, Usher sat down with Zane Lowe at his Las Vegas rehearsal space to talk about his new album “Coming Home.”

The two dive deep into when Usher first realized he belonged on a stage, and how it still bothers him that his seminal album “Confessions” did not win a Grammy for Album of the Year.

Usher also talks about how iconic leaders like Michael Jordan inspire him, reminisces about his friendships with Michael Jackson and Prince, and how it was important to reclaim and redefine his name from an absentee father.

Finally, he reflects on how he got off a self-destructive path that ultimately led to him meeting his wife Jennifer Goicochea.

UB Spotlight: Usher Talks To Apple Music | Coming Home, GRAMMYs + New Wife!

USHER Talks To Apple Music About Creating A Vegas Experience To Remember By Tapping Into The City’s History…
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 R&B artists now making their way here in a different way. Not to say that they haven’t been R&B artists that came before, but it’s respected in a different way, especially when you have a 100 sold out 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.” But I just opened my mind, man. And I said, “I want to try all the things that 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.” Whether it was Sammy Davis Jr. Whether it was Bill Cosby. Whether it was Flip Wilson. Whether it was The Jackson 5, or 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. I talked 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 new artist and just imagine. And when you do that, you pay it forward. You invest in your idea, “This can happen.”

USHER Tells Apple Music That His Album ‘Confessions’ Was Based On The Collective Narrative Of Men, And Was An Alternative To Therapy…
It was, 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. 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 somebody that could be lovely, but you’re a bit of a… I got to keep a little bit of a distance. So that was a great deal of mistrust and maybe generational scarring that I had to begin to unwind. I would hope that all of these albums would be perceived in success the same way that Confessions was.

USHER Talks To Apple Music About How It Still Bothers Him That His Seminal Album ‘Confessions’ Did Not Win A GRAMMY For Album Of The Year…
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 are as many influential as that album has been. Even Rolling Stone said it, but it did not win Album of the Year. Artists still care, artist care. And I’m happy to see the progress that they are making, but it doesn’t change the fact that 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 a age where you’re like, “Hey man, love it. I 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.

USHER Tells Apple Music If You want Great Results, You Have To Be Willing To Put In The Work, And How Iconic Leaders Like Michael Jordan Inspire Him…
Yeah, man, if you really want great results, then you have to be willing to push yourself. There has to be no limit that you are not willing to push yourself to. I’m motivated by incredible iconic leaders like Michael Jordan. 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 pushed through. I look at 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 Ali, not just his political stance, but also to how unwavering he was and unapologetic, how he would say shit that other people would have been killed for.

On when he first realized he belonged on a stage…

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 Dalewood High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I’ll never forget seeing this group called, the NuBeginnings 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 was 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 is 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.”

On his relationship with Michael Jackson…

We performed at Madison Square Garden during the, I think 30th anniversary of The Jackson Five I think it was, and I’ll never forget, 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?” They’re like, “No, no, no. He wants you to wear this.” The dude put me in a fur top and leather pants with my chest out and my stomach, all out and I was like, “Michael Jackson wants me to wear this and he wants me to tumble in the air?” They’re like, “Yeah, that’s what he wants you to do.” I’m like, “All right, that’s cool. That’s fine.” But then I meet him, but if you look back at it, it’s really funny and look like we were in a jungle, but that was his creative. Nonetheless, we ended up working in a studio where the majority of the dancers and performers were there, and we did run through, and every take I would sing at the top of my lungs, he would be like, “You’re singing?” “Yeah, of course. It’s 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.” “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 piece from the Victory Tour as just a gift. He wanted me to have it. I seen this jacket in his closet. I was like, “Yo, can I get that jacket?” He’s like, “You can’t have that,” but I’d ask…Of course, if you don’t ask, you don’t know.

On what took him so long to make his new album…

The five or six years that it took to make this album wasn’t because it was just a consistent, in your mind about every song. No, it was a stop and a start. The Pandemic, I was working with Mark Pitts from RCA at the time, and we worked for years and years. So 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, being prepared, became very tough at the end of my relationship with RCA, where I would then have to really pick up all of the pieces and try to figure out how to do this. But I didn’t run. I stayed in the studio, I would come and go. Some very, very hard things happened, man. I had accidents in my life with my son, divorce with my ex-wife, just trying to find myself, real life. Life had other plans while I was living it through, and thinking that I was running it in the right direction. 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 used the music to at least hold some of those very valuable gems that had happened in my life, and now I’m ready to share. I did understand that when I put out the A project that it was a buffer, it was 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 it would be respected, it would be recognized, and I would be received in the way that I think would speak to who and what I feel I represent.

On putting his private trauma on public display during live performances…

My private trauma became a public display in many ways, and it’s like… It’s sometimes hard to realize, wait a minute, this is really a traumatic thing that I’m singing about here, but we are all celebrating it and we are 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 way I sang it, but I do feel like there is a soul at the center of it, and it was some of the things that I’ve experienced. Confessions was a collective 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 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 get it out of your body and say, okay, I went through this, this is the truth.

On the inspiration behind his new song with The-Dream “Cold Blooded”…

“Cold Blooded” was … it was really special. I think that The-Dream is really a special dude. We have a really great relationship and bond, and he really pushed me. He pushed me to say things and be honest. “Maybe I shouldn’t have loved you like I did. Maybe I should have stopped at a good time. You know how many pretty eyes and pretty thighs I done seen, Like, man, just you mad at me.” This is the truth. I made you feel like it was really about you. It’s riveting, but now I’m beginning to see a different world 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 to go from warm-hearted to cold-blooded is a real thing. It’s a vicious thing that then happens in relationships and it begins to create real dissension between child and parent and that’s the deeper part of it, but that kind of trauma is really harmful to our kids, but it’s a reality of what we as men deal with, with our ex-wives or our ex-relationships, they get mad, man and they’re like… They’re just trying to kill you. It’s just like, wait a minute. Whoa. You know what I’m saying? 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

On the meaning behind the song “Kissing Strangers” and working with the late busbee…

Rest in peace, busbee. Who delivered an amazing record. I think I came up with this record maybe, I don’t know, it was years ago and we developed, worked it, worked it, and just 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 the world that I have been able to reach and expand to see and experience and the messaging in the song, the fact that doing that down period where I was single, I found myself reflecting like, “Man, how do I go from strangers kissing to kissing strangers?” And then it’s over. I’m just trying to sex it away. I’m trying my hardest to connect it away. Maybe there’s this vice that allows me to just forget about what I really feel. It is a real emotion. It’s a real thing that I think people do experience

On how he got off a self-destructive path by traveling the world…

I wanted a deeper connection with myself, so I disconnected from the world. I kind of went away. I went to Africa, I went to India. I just began to just
really reflect and not necessarily take a religious journey, but more a spiritual, personal journey, a healing, personal journey… I was able to be around people who didn’t see the artist that I was. I was able to go and be in villages with kids who just wanted to celebrate and draw patterns on the ground, and I didn’t understand that culture or really enjoy and love nature. We would go and I was just like, “Man, look at these people here. They don’t have all of the things that we have. They literally are just happy.” That was the first time that I was really taking time for myself. I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t, to be honest, before then.

On the song “One Of Them Ones” being inspired by connecting to your partner and finding ‘The One’…

That moment is really about that real connection, when you really found one of them ones, you know this right here, this, that shit that’s going to have you in your feelings. You know what I mean? You literally 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.