“The moment was maybe for later,” Usher explains in a new interview. “He’s gonna play the Super Bowl. I’ll go ahead and give you that for the future.”
The Super Bowl cameo that could’ve been!
While speaking with The Breakfast Club Friday, Usher confirmed that he did in fact have a “brief” conversation with Justin Bieber about performing alongside him and his bevvy of superstar friends in the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show.
“Things did [not] work out with Justin. I honor and recognize that my brother… I think it might have been the fact that he was wanting to tell a different story right now, and I understand that,” the “Yeah!” singer explained. “But we did have a brief conversation and we’re gonna do something else in the future. No love lost or anything like that.”
While talks were had, Bieber, ultimately, did not join Usher on stage, instead watching his longtime friend and mentor perform from the audience.
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But even though fans were disappointed not to see JB up there with Usher, Lil Jon, Alicia Keys and the crew of artists he employed to make his halftime performances one of the best to date, Usher’s confident Bieber will grace the Super Bowl stage in the future.
“It’s a lot of pressure for the Super Bowl, obviously for me to put together a show. So, I reached out to everybody. Justin wasn’t the only person that I actually spoke to about doing the Super Bowl. But the moment was maybe for later,” he said. “He’s gonna play the Super Bowl. I’ll go ahead and give you that for the future. I profess that over his life and over his time, because he has a career that deserves it.”
Usher added, “But, it just didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to.”
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Justin Bieber Shows Usher Love Following Super Bowl Half Time Rumors
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Lil Jon also addressed the possibility of Bieber joining them on stage, telling TMZ, “We wanted to put Justin in the show. So, we had the idea of doing a version of the show with Justin in it. But I think Justin wasn’t really ready to — that’s a lot of rehearsal, a lot of responsibility, a lot of time, and a lot of eyeballs. And I don’t know if he was ready to do all that.”
He continued, “But he was definitely there supporting Usher, and they’re really good friends and he definitely was supporting him, regardless.”
Bieber showed Usher love following his performance Sunday, taking to Instagram to pay tribute to the Grammy-winner.
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“LOVE YOU MY BROTHER. NOONE CAN SING AND DANCE THE WAY YOU DO,” Bieber wrote, alongside a photo from the star-studded show.
He continued, “LOVE YOU FROM THE DEPTHS OF MY HEART. BROUGHT THE ‘A’ TO THE WORLD, ONLY YOU BABYYYYYY 😘.”
For more from Usher’s epic halftime show, check out the gallery below.