Backstage at “The Tonight Show,” the teen pop star’s
personal tutor, Jenny, couldn’t find her cellphone. She suspected her
pupil might have hidden it as a prank.
“Justin, did you take my phone?” she said, searching
under a couch cushion. “Because if you don’t have it, I’m going to have
to cancel my plan right now.”
“No! I swear, I didn’t take it,” he said, offering
up a convincing puppy dog look and shaking his wispy trademark bangs
out of his eyes and walking away. The teacher still seemed skeptical.
“I don’t know. It’s
Amid the circus surrounding America’s latest teen
sensation, it’s easy to forget that Bieber is still a Doritos-munching
kid. One who is only a couple of inches over 5 feet tall; whose voice
is still changing; who likes to push the boundaries of his new world.
In the last month, Bieber has performed on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” twice on “The View,”
2.0.,” was released in March and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200
albums chart. And Saturday, he was the musical guest on “Saturday Night
Live,” a gig that many big name performers twice his age can’t land.
As the music industry continues to struggle, Bieber,
in the span of less than a year, is suddenly one of its most valuable
assets, the evidence being the team of adults on his payroll that
follows him nearly everywhere he goes, working to both manage and
prolong his success. It’s a lot for a teenager to process.
“I am with adults all day,” said Bieber of his
current posse, “and it’s fun sometimes, but sometimes I’m like, ‘No, I
want to hang out with my friends my own age.’ But at the same time, it
makes me mature a little faster. I think I’m still immature sometimes,
but I try not to think I’m hot stuff.”
Maybe so, but there’s no escaping
That was apparent last Thursday, when Bieber was shuttled from a
morning appearance at Radio Disney to an afternoon taping of “The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
A clutch of young girls was waiting outside the
when Bieber arrived, escorted by his bodyguard, publicist, vocal coach,
road manager-stylist and a representative from his music label. His
manager, mother and tutor Jenny (who asked that her last name not be
used to help her avoid female teen hangers-on) would join the entourage
later in the day.
“I just want to hug
“Yeah, I’m OK with that too,” Galeazzi agreed. “I just want him to know me.”
Like many of Bieber’s fans, both girls became
acquainted with the singer through his YouTube videos, which he began
posting online at age 13 after performing in a local talent contest in
his native
— their first airplane flight — for a meeting. That was where Bieber
famously ran into Usher Raymond in a parking lot — an occurrence that
led the R&B star to go to bat for the then-unknown, helping him
land a professional deal and forming a joint-venture label with Braun
and
“When I met him, his personality just won me over,”
recalled Raymond. “And then when he sang, I realized we were dealing
with the real thing. His voice just spoke to the type of music I would
want to be associated with.”
The important endorsement came after months of rejection for Bieber.
“Everyone had told me: ‘You don’t have a
And literally everyone said no,” Braun recalled. “But his talent was
undeniable, and his success is a testament to his true ability.”
While Bieber’s vocal chops are his own, the adults
surrounding him are molding him in other ways. He is most often seen
wearing oversized baseball caps, dog chains and flashy sneakers, a
streetwise look that’s been concocted by his road manager and stylist
26, once dubbed Bieber’s “swagger coach,” a term he now bristles at.
Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in
Bieber’s manner of dress and speech (“Wassup man, how you doin’?” or
“It’s like, you know, whateva'”) suggest he’s mimicking his favorite
rappers. Some of those rappers, like Ludacris, appear on his songs,
which have been produced by a respected team of artists that includes
Terius “The-Dream” Nash.
The young star also seems to have mastered Flirting
101. He frequently compliments his fans with pet names and has flirted
with talk show hosts
“You all look like princesses,” he cooed to a
handful of fans allowed inside the studio for Radio Disney’s “Take Over
With Ernie D.” “You look like
Later that afternoon, his
sneakers up on a couch before the Leno taping, he snacked on Doritos
and said he sometimes finds his fans’ adoration perplexing.
“I don’t really understand it, because I’ve never
had a musician I was that into,” he said, picking up a Sharpie and
practicing his signature by repeatedly autographing a blank piece of
paper. “I just try to make it as fun for them as possible. For some of
them, this might be the only time they’ll get to meet me.”
Team Bieber is acutely protective of his image. A day before the Leno appearance, publicist
Awards on the Los Angeles Times’ Web site that she described as
“snotty.” Then, when Bieber told Leno on the air that he had purchased
his own Range Rover — prompting an unflattering remark from someone in
the audience that was overheard by Victor — she asked a reporter to
excise any mention of the car from this story.
Bieber’s bodyguard,
also watches the teen’s every move. When he heard Bieber call some Leno
cameramen “dumb,” he quickly pulled the singer aside and scolded him.
Bieber’s mentor,
“It’s like Justin has already been here before,” said
“Although he’s 16, when you talk to him, it’s like you’re talking to a
well-seasoned young man. It’s almost like he’d already mapped out in
his mind what his story could be, and it’s up to us to navigate him.”
Manager Braun and
executive vice president of A&R at Island Def Jam, Bieber’s label,
said keeping Bieber level-headed is key not just to maintaining his
current status, but to eventually transitioning him to adult success.
“My thing with Justin is: feet on the ground. We don’t have any time to levitate,” Hicks said.
“The answer to me is that you help him become a
man,” Braun said. “You surround him with people who don’t treat him any
differently. Justin rode coach today because there was no first class
available and we had to get somewhere. It was no questions asked. He’s
been given a gift and a blessing, but that doesn’t make you better than
anyone else.”
As for Jenny, the tutor, her cellphone was eventually returned to her. She declined to identify the culprit.
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