Usher breaks silence on Justin Bieber’s Super Bowl halftime show absence

Usher breaks silence on Justin Bieber’s Super Bowl halftime show absence: He wanted ‘to tell a different story’

Usher broke his silence on why his mentee and longtime collaborator Justin Bieber was not part of his star-studded halftime show at Super Bowl LVIII.

“You know what, it didn’t work out with Justin,” Usher, 45, told the nationally syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club, which posted the interview on Instagram. “I honor and recognize that my brother … I think it might’ve been the fact that he was just wanting to tell a different story right now and I understand that.”

Before the Super Bowl, there was buzz that Bieber would be a surprise guest during Usher’s halftime show since Usher helped to sign Bieber when he was a teenager, and the pair have collaborated before.

But it wasn’t to be, as Usher welcomed guests including H.E.R., Alicia Keys, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri and Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas — but no Bieber.

“We did have a brief conversation [and] we’re gonna do something in the future,” Usher told The Breakfast Club. “No love lost or anything like that.”