Justin Bieber sat down with Apple Music's Zane Lowe recently for a wide-ranging interview about his new album Changes and returning to the spotlight after his musical hiatus.
During the chat, which will air Saturday (Feb. 15), the superstar opened up about how his surprise appearance at Ariana's Grande's headlining Coachella set in 2019 helped him overcome his fears about returning to music. "It gave me kind of a boost of confidence and reminded me because it'd been so long since I'd been on stage," he said. "Just kind of reminded me...Oh, this is what I do. This is what I'm good at.
"And I don't need to run away from it. I was running away. I think a lot of us need to take that when something's hard. It's almost like we need to run towards the pain and run towards the hurt rather than run away from it. I think you get kind of healing when it comes to that.”
Bieber also reflected on what it's been like for him to grow up under a hugely public microscope. "I definitely have grown up in front of the world for sure. But there's nothing... I mean, just even thinking now, what we're doing right now is we are building, we're building a relationship," he said. "What you and I are doing right now, we're building trust, we're building- what you and I are doing right now, we're building trust. We're building... This isn't just... I mean, people will see this and look at it as an interview, but what we're doing is we're just two men sitting down, talking about life and the human condition.”
Bieber also revealed how his marriage to Hailey Baldwin inspired the LP, as well as future music. "I'm freaking married now. I got the best wife in the world. She supports me through so much. I'm really honored to be her husband and I just -- yes. There's more to come," he said. "I mean, I want to continue to write about what it looks like to be... This is an album I wrote in the first year of our marriage, so it's so fresh. There's so much more to learn about commitment, and building trust, and foundation. I'm looking forward to continuing to build and make music that's going to reflect that. I think I'm excited about this, but I'm just like, there's so much more.
"There's so much deeper levels I'm excited to go to, which is fun. It gives me something to look forward to. I think in the past, I was so caught up in all of the bad things in my life that I wasn't able to really take a second and really appreciate all the little things. Yes, I'm excited. It's going to be good."
Changes is out now via Def Jam/Universal Music Group.
Check out more previews from Bieber's Apple Music interview below.