Usher

00:00:15 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Usher is one of the few R and B acts from the nineties who's gone on to become a global superstar. And if you ask him today how it all happened, he'll tell you he manifested it all. As a kid back in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Usher and his mom moved to Atlanta when he was just twelve years old so he could pursue a career in music. His first big break came in ninety three when a song called Me a Mac was released on the Poetic Justice soundtrack. Shortly after, he was signed to the Face Records and first found mainstream success with the release of his sophomore album, My Way in ninety seven. Since the beginning of his thirty year career, Usher sold over sixty five million records worldwide. He's also started on the Broadway Musical Chicago, been a coach on The Voice, and recently added a Las Vegas residency to his long list of career achievements. The Vegas Show, which sold out all of its twenty twenty two dates, was just extended to include fifteen more shows in June and October. As you can probably imagine, Usher is a busy man. I caught up with him on Zoom for today's episode, between a vocal lesson meetings with his team and his beautiful kids pressing for his attention. During our chat, Usher explained why conflict has always been a big inspiration for a songwriting, especially when working with producer Jermaine dupri Jd on his two thousand and four classic album Confessions. Usher also talks about how elder statesmen like Quincy Jones have helped him maintain a level of sophistication throughout his career. This is broken record liner notes for the digital Age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's my interview with Usher. Hey, Hey, what's going on? How you guys doing good? How are you doing? You know? I really, I really do. Wish I could complaint, but I would sound like a damn fool one because I don't think anybody would care to care that two. It's a waste of time when you always have such precious moments, right, that's right, man. You can either use it to complain or you can use it to compel, right, and to propel. Man, you got a lot going man, a lot going on, that's right. Since fourteen I remember you busting out killing it and now. Man, we're about twenty five years later, and it's as if you're as busy as you've ever been. Man, tell me about what's going on. It's crazy, man, considering I'm only thirty years old. I mean, I've been doing it since I was five. Man, it's been a lot going on, actually, a lot of really great things. A career obviously that's been you know, constructed over all of this time, in all of these years, but more than anything, a celebration over the last few years in Las Vegas for my biggest residency is I go back night after night listening to the songs and kind of reliving some of the emotions. Obviously the choreography and all the things that come with it. But more than that, man, it's fun and excitement that I need it, you know. I think all artists need a bit of motivation, and rather it's an audience or either just the love and passion of what you do. But being in front of a live audience really, you know, kind of reignited my passion and the energy, which is part of the reason that I'm now dropping the music and also too in the process of putting out another album, working on other products and other ancillary things to what I do culturally. You know, if you see the way I address or do you see the products I'm using, whatever it might be, all of those things are really your product of a career man, that has been dealt, as you said, over twenty years. It's crazy because I don't feel it. It's honestly, you don't realize how older you are, I guess until you think about your children. I have fourteen and a fifteen year old, so I'm like, okay, apparently i must be a bit older. But I'm not feeling like I'm losing a beat because rather I'm playing you know, football or basketball or any of those things with them. I'm keeping up. That's right. Man. The kids keep you young and old. It's a little bit of both. They keep you wise, That's what I will say. Kids. They will challenge you and at the same time they will give you purpose and reason. Yeah, you know, you think about the things that matter. It's that time that you have with them, them finding themselves, that becomes more of a priority. You know. Yeah, the new album, what did that energy start to come together? The energy of working on an album started a few years ago, and there's been you know, some hiccups that obviously have caused you know, I mean not to just put music out one the pandemic kind of sent everybody into like a holding pattern. And then just you know, deliberating over you know, just the process of analyzing right what expectations are out there. Then you just kind of get to a place where you're like, you know, what this is? What it is that I've been working on. This is a and offering, you know, rather I'm talking about things that I I obviously can relate to because I went through them, or either you can relate to because you're going through them. But you know, now I'm ready to share. I'm ready to share the music. I'm ready to share the emotion. I'm ready to share the creativity some of the things that I picked up over the time that I've been making this album. Now I'm ready to share it. What that is. I made a directorial debut with a song that's really only a snippet at this point, goog. But I have to say that a lot of it has been spun as a result of my Las Vegas residency. When I did that, it's just again, it's just reignited, you know, my passion and my connection to my audience and also to my connection to my music. Were you as backwards looking before you started the Vegas residency. Were you kind of typically in a mode of looking back at your career and thinking about different albums and eras, or did this kind of help you to that Las Vegas specifically has always been about celebrating the songs that you've had from the past. For me, it was a little bit of that, but it was the celebration of a genre, celebration of music because R and B in that capacity hadn't really been there. You've had a few artists you've had, you know, Marian Kerry and also to a few you know, more new recent artists that were working in Las Vegas, like Buno Mars and then it's impact. But that culture of R and B music and live performance in the way that I do it, it wasn't there. So I don't know if I ever looked at it as looking back. I looked at it as let me go back for a second to remind you of what this level of performance and entertainment is ultimately about, and the fact that this culture doesn't exist here. Things that I shared on stage you know. I mean, I don't know if you've ever been to my show, but I take you on a complete ride through Atlanta, through black culture. There's you know, certain views of like you know, jazz and I live music, and the idea of like being in this impromptu moment or improv that happens. You know, these unexpected things and unexpected guests that might come out on the stage. All of those things are part of what an R and B show has always offered in time. So it gave me the opportunity to do that and then experimenting with other things like skating on stage, and I just really I had fun. So again, I didn't look at it as looking back. The music from the soundtrack of My life, which is the songs that are hits, they take you back. But I'm moving forward in terms of how introduced this to you and how immersed you are in this experience. You don't feel like you're going to a show. You feel like you're having an experience. You don't feel like you're watching a live experience. You know that it's just singing and lights. No, you were completely immersed from the moment you walk into the theater to the moment that you leave the nightclub, you're completely in my passion. You're in the passion of what it is that I created, both musically and also too as an experience. I love that it's such a send up to like R and B, such a celebration of the genre, man, because you know, it's funny. I was having a conversation for the podcast with baby Face a couple weeks ago, and it dawned on me through talking to him that the era that you came up in the nineties really was the era of like R and B just being the mainstream popular music of the day, man, you know, whereas at some point it was race music at some point it was segregated to black charts. By the nineties, man, when you guys were what you guys were doing with the face, it became like a driver of the culture. Yeah. Well, I'll say this was it more relevant because it became defiant and things and genres that were established, like hip hop became more relevant. And then the mixing of R and B and hip hop together made it feel dangerous. I'd say that, but it was dangerous way before, and it was those other cultures of music, our genres of music. If you want to than that that were bastardizing in ways. You know, this credible thing called jazz. Jazz is the creation of all things man, all things that musical rather it's rock rather ideas of classical things. Right, you think about how R and B was established, it was jazz, and then from that all other things come. In my opinion, I think that there was a formal way of listening to music, which is orchestrated, and that's a different practice. But the things that you feel, the emotion, the storytelling, that's jazz, and rather through the thirties forties, you know, and then making your way up until the fifties, sixties and seventies, R and B was kind of on the back burning, but it was always supplying. Jazz was always supplying to all of those other genres. Yeah, So in my mind, I take ownership of that for those people. Even though we were racially segregated and maybe black, you know, performers were not celebrated. They couldn't even walk through the very places that they would perform in. So yeah, I think you're right. You know, through the nineties, R and B had a moment where it was more relevant than others and it felt dangerous. Rock and roll for it felt dangerous. If you look at DM and all of those are the things hip hop, it felt dangerous. So there's a sophistication that R and B had and has always had, that popular music or popular genre has been able to adopt. But it ain't ever went away. I think that it's always been there. And so long as you hear those those hues of what is jazz, those hues of what is blue, those hues of what is soul music, then that shit is R and B. That ain't what you think it is. It's it's not the genre that was claimed, it's the inspiration that was provided, you know what I'm saying. We'll be back after a quick break with more of my conversation with Usher. We're back with more from Ushure. You're right about like R and B having this sort of dangerous feel to it too in the nineties. And it was almost an accident because you get discovered by La Reid and get signed to the face, but because La didn't exactly know what to do with you in the beginning, you get sent to go work with Puff and it's like you kind of get immersed in a kind of have this dual world happening, man, between the R and B that you aspire to do and now you're hanging with Puff and and even kind of more dangerous R and B cats like Davante Swing, kind of more edgy cats. You know, how was that moment for you? Man? It seems like real, like the stars aligned to have that moment happened for you. Man. Yeah, before you get to like Davante Swing in New York's contribution to R and B and hip hop, you got the Parliament you gotta go, you know, those guys you gotta go to. You know, R and B was was dangerous much earlier than that, and mine working with Puff was you know, a matter of La Reid's vision to see that the entrepreneur that Puff was was going to grow. You know, until La Reid introduced with the world to Sean Buffy Combs, you didn't know nothing about bad Boy. You didn't even understand what it had to offer it, which meant, you know, you might have even glassed over, you know what he did with Joe to see and Uptown records. So I think it was really the sophistication between La Reid's helping people like Puff to be able to find his light, or Dallas Austin or Jermaine Duprie or any of the guys that he had hit records with, or Rico Wade with organized noise, all of those things. That was a matter of sophistication and La Reid's blending of the two worlds to make it dangerous. Yeah, Joe, to see was hip hop. It almost looked like a rock band that was R and B. You know, Mary James was and has always been, you know, this incredible soul singer that was just pulling her heart out. You know, I'll be sure you know heavy d all of those guys from that time that was setting a standard. There would be no Shaggy and all of those guys if you didn't have a heavy deed. So when I think about what I gained from working with Puffy and being in New York City and spending an entire year with him making my first album, it gave me all the fuel that I need to be not only the creative but also to the innovator that discovers talent and knows how to develop it as well using it for myself or either helping them find their way. There was something so fundamental about his creation and this idea of branding. It wasn't just about being a singer. You could be a great fucking singer. That don't matter. If I don't feel like I'm getting it's dangerous dealing with you and it's like, then why am I looking at you? Why do I care about you? I learned all of that from the School of Puff, and then from there it became relationship, and it became the life story and understanding where the person was, what their views were of what, you know, choices they made, how they dressed, you know, what type of shit they got into it. It became something far more than just listening to the music. You fell in love with the artist, so I wanted that. I'm like, okay, great. So then we didn't make a hit Altum together, but we had a hit record on it working with Davante Swim you know man, believe it, or not being around Biggie earlier in the days when he was being introduced Craig mag total being in New York City, like going to Mount Vernon, being you know, and being under the wing of Heady d and being able to see how you move and work with these work like hip hop and R and B together all of those things I could, I gained all of that now. I left and after that made my Way, came back to Atlanta and worked with JD and we made incredible music, incredible music together that now serviced all of what I know about being an artist. But yeah, a lot of hit records came out of that My Way, eighty seven oh one Confessions, and we kept going and we are still going. But yeah, I think that the one thing you might be overlooking is the danger and also to the sophistication that La Read had to create a blend right, Yeah, because that man had insight. That man had the ability to see for real before everybody else soft real. That man had the ability to see you know, jay Z and make him an executive that now we respect as a businessman because he saw something more us. The sophistication of understanding how to grow black entrepreneurs and black creatives to a place and lift them up is what I think happened with La and really made what we celebrate as a culture in music. Where do you think your sophistication came from? Because it just feels like you had it so early, like from the beginning like even though the first record wasn't hit record, it's like you came just ready made. What ready made is in the work, my work ethic is where that's what makes a difference. I learned the skill of being in the environment of people. If you want to be great, that surround yourself around great people. La Read Sean, Puffy Cones, Man do Pre Dallas Austin, you know, working with the greats you know, and then creating really incredible, amazing one offs, like you know, we did records with for real for the first time. But being able to have access to these guys, and I look at my you know, all of the records and the things that I've been able to create. Fact, I really really don't click of people who have been a part of my legacy. It ain't just one person. It's an entire world of people who who have all of these different views of R and B and hip hop, and then the way they play with it and the way they man make things. It's like it's like nothing else that I can't you can't compare it to anything else. Man, you really have multiple worlds of music colliding all through your catalog. Really and cats like early and cats and interesting points in the career, like when you're working with Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, Like you got them at a kind of like a real interesting point in my view, and it's just Catalog's crazy. You asked where the sophistication comes from. The sophistication comes from, you know the gurus Jimmy, Jamy, Taylorwis, like La Reid maybe face you know, those are the guys who were like they were like the oracles man they would have did They're like the Jedis. They they made you understand what it was to be an artist and how to make things last, being able to have ships like Quincy Jones. And then you know the young Jedis like you know, like Jermaine Dupree, He's advoicate, you know what I'm saying, Like, just yeah, when did you first meet Quincy Jones? Man? I first met Quincy. I walked in a Tummy Hill figure. It was a Tummy Hill Figure show in New York City. It was me Aliyah I think it was. It was a ton of relevant artists at that time. He had us walk in the show and that was the first time that Q kind of put his crew together so we were his crew for the night, and from that's found a really great relationship, a friendship. He's been a godfather to me ever since that day, you know, and my conversations with him, believe it or not, were not about music as much as it was what is your contribution to life? He turned me into a philanthropist. He began to help me understand that there's much more of a responsibility to kind of lay groundwork and remind people that it's not just about music. It's also too about opening your eyes or the world's eyes to things that need to be addressed, you know, advocating for things that you think, you know do matter and will matter for generations to come and even for the current time. But yeah, a great relationship. So that sophistication, you know, it comes from those relationships, relationships with the guys who've been here before, the elders, the guys who understand, you know, it's idd and this time because everything so young, right, and everything so vibrant, and everything so defiant. But really, man, our elders are the ones that matter. They got something to teach us, and we really do learn from listening to them. So you got to listen to the ogs. You know, they are the gatekeepers and they make the difference. Yes, there is a new frontier of people who are just speaking out for how they feel and being loud about it. But sophistication, man, longevity comes from listening to your elders. You want to make it last forever, and you gotta listen to your elders, Listen to the ones that have been here. Even if you think what they're telling you ain't relevant to what you think or what you feel right now, they got something to share with you, and that sophistication and longevity comes from there, their will of knowledge. Man. It's beautiful that you already at such a young tender age man, just to accept that wisdom man and listen because you know, and then also not to take what they tell you, incorporate it and also find your own way and implemented your own way, man, because certainly looking at your catalog, looking out your career, it's a totally unique path that you took. Their commitment and their dedication is what I saw, and I become them in time. I don't know, Like I said, I'm only a thirteen years old, you know what I'm saying. So over time, hopefully I'll be able to share, you know, that information that ends that wisdom with the artists that are coming. Speaking of Quincy, is there any truth to the idea that Tevin Campbell's second record, I'm ready some of those songs supposed to be written for you. Now many people have said that no, Tevin Campbell songs were Tevin Campbell songs, and my songs were my songs. The reality is, I think La Reid and Baby Facebook kind of going through a transition when they worked together and when I first signed as an artist, so I probably didn't get a chance to receive, you know, the love and the benefit of what Baby Face offered my first album. But I later on became great friends with him. I just seen him in Atlanta. You know, he's still the o G. I love him, and rather he was writing songs for me. He still was a motivation. I still looked at whip appeal and was in was by that a matter of fact, The song that actually, you know, spun it all and started it off for me was a song that he wrote. He and La Read together wrote that record End of the Road, End of the Road. Yeah, boys a minute, but I'm ready those songs. They belonged to Tavin Kimpbell. What I did with Puff and my first album, it was what it was. I did not get that record that I wanted my first album. When I listened to Can We Talk, I felt slighted because I was like, damn, I wanted that record. I wanted to record that. I wonder if that song was for me. Noah, it wasn't. I think it was always Tavin Kimbell song. And I know that, you know Face, he was going through something I guess at the moment with La and we just didn't work together my first album. That's it. That goes to, like again at being sort of serendipitous that you get to work, you get to be on the face and have a lot of what comes with that, but then also kind of get to kind of go your own route and go work with Puff and you kind of got Face plus more in a lot of ways, which was I imagine must have been free. It was out of my control. I would have wanted to work through Baby Face. They were just going through something that wouldn't allow it to happen at the time. But yeah, it's it's a manifestation. I remember being in Chattanoob Tennessee, and me and my mother talking about going to Atlanta and potentially meeting La Reid and Baby Face and signing to their label. That's why we came to Atlanta. For me, she came to Atlanta because it was a you know, it was an elevation from Chattanooga and an opportunity, more opportunity for her as a as a woman and also to her employment at the time. But for me, it was a true opportunity to meet some executive and maybe turn this talent into something that would take care of us. Because I was not taking no for an answer. I ain't my mind. I knew I would I wouldn't perform, but like I had a red diet on where I wanted to be. I was performing Maybe Faces songs rather it was Bobby Brown or Boys to Men or any of the other artists that they've worked with, and Rock Steady was on repeat, you know, by the Whispers with my mom for my mom. So I was always listening to La Read and Maybe Faces production. I didn't realize it. Yeah, but I finally made it to Atlanta, and I didn't know who La Reid was. I just knew that they had a hit record on the radio, and I love singing it, and if I could get people to pay attention to me, maybe I could get to them. And it happened. It was a manifestation. I called it into existence. I said it, and we went after it, and me and my mother we made it happen. We're gonna take one last break and then me back with more from Usher. We're back with the rest of my conversation with Usher. What do you think happened between making a really great first record that, honestly I think still holds up as one of the great records of that early nine these R and B era, But what happened you think between then and my way where you kinda were able to create a hit record. I think, first of all, Puffy was ahead of his time in terms of what he created with my first album that would ultimately become the stable of what R and B artists in my age group would go after. So he was way ahead. I think it just it might have been a little bit too mature, And now looking at things, it's like they busted it wide open and that pussy wet. You know what I'm saying. This is crazy type of ship that they say on now, which, hey, it's an interpretation and you should be able to say whatever you want wet ass, pussy and all that other ship. But you know, I think can you get rid it was a bit that was a bit much for a fifteen year old to say, can you get rid it? To a girl that means a sexual thing? But you know, I think he was just ahead. He was just ahead of the curve. I think that he got there before everybody. Instead was willing to push me in as so long as I was willing to allow myself to be produced as an artist, that I would get something valuable. Now going back and listening to those songs, they're way way better than I could even understand at the time. I missed at that Davante swing production. There's no songs on the radio that sound like any of that stuff. What he was creating, what they were working on. You know, Timberland was doing those beats, man like, there's no music that sounds like that type of R and B even to this day, and as great as R and B is, nothing is great like that. That man was creating something that was amazing. What was it like being in the studio with Davante swing man if I could even remember, because I only saw so much, and obviously my focus was on performing and singing. Yeah, I wouldn't really paying attention to the type of things that were going on. But he was a star and something about living and breathing and being the star at all moments. It's what I saw. I watched him work, and when I watched him over to the piano, watching him turn the knobs. So he directed me how to sing when he walked over to his car, when he directed how he wanted his crew to producer or either work on songs, because it wasn't just came with it. He worked on a few songs on the album. I was just so impressed with the starter that he was, how he you know, how just how he carried himself. I just he was a rock star. Man. It was it was like that dude is just super duper freaking cool. And then you got Joe to see in the background, literally Casey is singing backgrounds on Can't You Get with It? I'm like, oh, who am I? What have I manifested to be able to have Casey and Joejoe here listening to me perform in the booth, you know what I'm saying, and also to singing backgrounds on my song and it comes out of this world. Man, At what point did you working with Jad realized Confessions was going to be confessions in other words, that it was going to be such a like a personal record. When me and JD lock in, we lock in, you know, we become one in that moment, right, Rather we're talking about things that we as men sitting and talk about. Rather we were talking about things that he was going through or things that I was going through. I think there was an aha moment between he and I because the album title was called Real Talk when we first started, and it was all about that was like a catch tone, you know, catch phrases. I was like real Talk. So I was like, let's name it that. We named it that, and that was a motivation, Like all the conversations on this album are going to be real, like complicated things. Rather it's dealing with the emotion of complicated in the complications of emotion, or rather as dealing with the complications of love and what happens when you you know you're in a toxic situation or you have a girl on the side or you're in a relationship and you're trying to figure out how to balance as a man. You know, when he and I lock in, it becomes something special. So confess as a title or as a song. It really just happened organically. You know, we were just living and talking and living with each other and trying to find a way to write the songs of what we were living through. You know, talking about dangerous, that record really felt dangerous in a different way, man, because it felt like harkening back to like Marvin putting it all out there, like in the like when he was going through his love troubles in the late seventies, and just I don't know that there was records R and B Records two thousand and three, two thousand and four that felt as personal as that man, that felt powerful. Even as a kid. I mean I was a freshman in high school and that came out and I was like it just felt I was like, yo, this is different. Well, by the way, as a young boy, right, you don't necessarily have a lot of songs that, you know, speaking to the emotions that we feel and that they are you know, maybe it's disconnected. Um, you know, the reality of the facade that we as men have to put on. You know, I don't want to be emotional. I don't really want to let you know that my hardest broken or I'm really broken in this moment. We always found very unique ways to be vulnerable. And that was the point. It was like, no, let's talk about the things that are complicated. Let's talk about the complications of like passion and love man and make it all right for men to listen to it and women to respect it because it's articulated in a way that's clear for them to know what we're dealing with. Yeah, you know, and I necessarily you know light what we're saying. And I think the nineties kind of found this way of doing that. It was there were artists that did it other than Jabie, like Daniel Jones, you know, being in love with When you love someone, you just don't treat them bad. Now. I feel so sad now that I want to leave. She's crying a herd to me. How could you let this be? I just need time to think where I want to be. That's a conflict. Like living in this place of conflict is what I think we were really focused on with confessions and every time me and JD worked together, you know, and it became a really a practice of all of the art that I've created. I make that like, what is that conflict? You remind me of a girl that I once knew. You don't have to call because I'm outload my homies, I can't. You know, I'm gonna be all right. We broke up and I'm cool. I'm gonna keep it moving. I gotta get back on my feet. Confessions. I got a baby on the side. You know, you know, I don't mind you know. You know I'm looking at the girl in the strip club like I don't mind you that you do what you do. I ain't got no judgment for you. I mean you dancing the poles. They don't make you all. You know what I'm saying. All of those things, those things are conflict, like that you got it bad climax. I've reached the climax of this relationship and I know it's not gonna be more than sexual. I get it, and I'm letting it be what it is. You got it bad, Let it burn. These are things that were real. I can't remember, you know, feeling the emotions of like you know, I'm out of control. I cannot deal with the emotional like internal burning, and I'm going through like I can't stop crying. I can't stop what I'm feeling. That's like a burning sensation. We go to a song called burn. So living in or finding ways to articulate conflict is what is in those songs and what you know was in confessions. So just to wrap things up, you're working on a new record. Do you still find inspiration and conflict or what do you find yourself finding inspiration these days in terms of songwriting or emotion A little bit of both. It's what I feel in my song making. Yeah, as a man, I'm going to always be conflicted because there's passion and we're kind of working against the natural nature of man. It's like I want to be in love, I want to be happy, but then I also too, am going to sabotage myself because I'm passionate. You know, I want to be happy, but I've been so unhappy for so long that I just end up sabotaging myself because that's just what I'm accustomed to. Toxicity in life. And by the way, it's not just men. Women are going through this ship too. It's a human condition. There's a human condition, and it's a human experience. What we are all doing is having a human experience. Music provides an opportunity to drive it down, to make it last forever, to listen to it and continue to think about where you were and maybe get something from it. Rather you like, Okay, I acknowledge that I got this problem, I got this issue. Now I gotta get past it or either man, I'm going through that right now. All right, Well, what's on the other side of it? You got to first acknowledge it and deal with it, sit with it. Don't just go go get another love or go go you know, buy another thing, or go and run away from it and go put your attention in time somewhere else. No, you gotta shit with it. But that conflict, yes, is still there to this day, because I'm human, you know, even if it's just a thought. You know, sometimes we need a little space to be able to find that. Sometimes we need to slow down and sit with this comfort. Maybe sometime we need to find balance. And I'm happy that I've been able to be that balance in music, to be able to help people get through that. Absolutely, man, Thank you always for finding that in your music and not being afraid to be vulnerable because you've helped a lot of people process a lot, man, a lot of different things, a lot of different emotions, good and bad and in between. So appreciate you always, man. And and so I have my math wrong up top two rights fifteen years. Been in the game about thirty now now. But you know I claim all of my years. Man, I don't look for to four. You know what I'm saying. But I'm definitely loving the wisdom that has come with this this time in the celebration in Las Vegas. Man that I get out of it, the fact that people are paying their hard earned money to come out there. I ain't bringing you there to disappoint you. I'm going to give you an experience and you're going to have a celebratory moment. Whether it was the beginning of my career or rather it's the current moment that just makes you enjoy the process. Come, come to Las Vegas, Come and join you. Be on the lookout for new music because it's coming. And man, I thank you. Thank you for this moment to be able to share, thank you for this moment to be able to just talk about that thing as a guy giving gifts that I get to share with that audience every day. Yes, sir, can't wait to see you out in Vegas. I'll be out there in June. And thank you, man Man, thank you, thanks again to Usher for jumping on zoom despite his busy schedule. You can hear all of our favorite Usher songs at Broken Record podcast dot com. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record is produced with helpful Lea Rose, Jason Gambrell, Ben Holiday, and Eric sam Now. Our editor is Sophie Crane. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and unto up to ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions, and if you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app by theme musics by Kenny Beats, I'm justin Motion