Justin Bieber has, or at least did, have the world at his feet at the end of 2012. A movie star girlfriend, millions in the bank and the devotion of nearly 37 million Beliebers on Twitter. But it seems there is one thing he doesn’t have — friends.
Channeling James Dean in Teen Vogue’s impossibly fine photo shoot , the 19-year-old who’s been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons opens up on what it’s really like to be the biggest pop star in the game.
Unsurprisingly, with memories of Mariah Yeater’s false paternity suit in 2011 and oh, the small matter of a murder plot, Bieber says he’s learned to keep his inner circle tight.
“I get good vibes from people all the time, and I probably could get along with them and be their friend, but now I just don’t trust anybody,” Bieber tells Teen Vogue . “Literally, my phone never rings. I only have, like, four people that I keep in contact with.”
Of his friends, the young Canadian observes:
“They don’t see me as Justin Bieber, but just see me as Justin,” adding , “I don’t need a bunch of friends to make me happy. I just need the people close to me that I love, that’s all.”
And if there was ever a time that a teen global superstar needed friends, it would be now.
With hysterical media coverage following everything he does — from clashes with paparazzi, shirtlessness at freezing airports, disputes in nightclubs, the state of his love life and, more recently, the quarantining of his pet monkey and a battery investigation — the Internet savvy pop star says he is aware of the riot of rumors out there, but insists:
“I know who I am and I’m very much in control. I don’t need to address every speculation. Remember when Cam’ron dissed Jay-Z? Jay-Z didn’t even respond. Why didn’t he respond? Because he’s Jay-Z.”
Despite past social media venting about his recent bad press or a certain band member that shall remain nameless, Bieber says he’s now realized that making a fuss about so-called ‘haters’ only gives them the spotlight.
“My Twitter is really nice,” he notes . “I have so many fans that I rarely ever see a nasty tweet. I don’t read YouTube comments because those can get you sad. I see so much stuff on the Internet, sometimes I just want to go to Twitter and just go after people. But then I think twice: If someone if dissing me, I’m going to make this person way more famous by tweeting them.”
For those interested, the boy-man recently described by Chris Brown as “Baby Elvis” wears Le Labo Santal 33, has only one request in interviews, 50 Cent’s Vitamin water, Formula 50, and has an illustrated brown and black-feathered bird as a screensaver on his iPhone 5 to remind him of his Stratford, Ontario hometown.
Dismissed as a “national embarrassment” by Canada’s Globe and Mail , maybe someone should tell them Bieber is their biggest claim to fame.