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Amidst the anticipation of his upcoming Super Bowl performance and the buzz surrounding his acclaimed residency, Usher shifts his focus to diabetes awareness.
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00:00I found this at 11 years old and here I am at my older age.
00:04I'm 45 years old and I'm still just as passionate as I was when I first started.
00:09And you should do the same.
00:10If you find something that you really love in your life,
00:13this is the kind of commitment that you should have for me.
00:20How are you doing today?
00:22I'm okay.
00:23Okay.
00:24Thank you for asking. How are you?
00:26I'm doing well. I'm very excited.
00:28Okay. So we can go ahead and jump right in.
00:31So I wanted to ask you a little bit about your residency and then also what you're doing about diabetes.
00:40So I know your residency has been a massive success.
00:44Tons of people have come to see it from celebrities and just regular folks who love your music.
00:49I know my mom went to go.
00:51So what inspired you to, you know, take on a residency apart from, you know,
00:56doing other ventures, just like touring?
00:59Well, typically, right?
01:03Tours are either a product of releasing an album or maybe a collaborative effort around grouping of artists.
01:11But it's a curated experience regardless, right?
01:15Yeah.
01:15And, you know, I think I've reached a place where I was entitled to be able to have some sense of a residency.
01:27If it were not in Las Vegas, it could have been, you know, in other places that, you know, offer residencies for some time.
01:35The one added to it is the fact that, you know, I would be able to still manage my regular life as a parent, as a, you know, a human being, as a curator, as a person who works outside of music.
01:53Music requires a certain focus.
01:55It requires a certain dedication in terms of times, in terms of touring.
02:00So residency was a brilliant idea in my mind after the pandemic.
02:10I think that the world was kind of in a state of shock.
02:13We were still trying to figure out how to get back to normal.
02:15I think everybody was kind of tucked away.
02:17I mean, other than Atlanta.
02:18Atlanta was still going hard, which I lived in Los Angeles at the time.
02:23But, you know, we were trying to figure out how to get back to normal.
02:28And we put the residency on sale just before the pandemic and had to pause because there was just no functioning, active business at the time.
02:41So, you know, out of, you know, this quarantine and out of not being in social spaces where, you know, there could be a most of the people, you know, it was a risk.
02:56It was a roll of the dice.
02:57But what it offered was something that was the belief that we get back to normal.
03:03The other side of it was that I could get back to normal.
03:07I could get back to the thing that I love to do the most.
03:09And that was performing in front of a live audience.
03:12Not just because I had a new album or, you know, a project that I was promoting or either an idea of collaboration between me and sharing the stage with said groups because we were, you know, touring.
03:26Yeah.
03:26But that was that was that was the the reasoning for residency.
03:33So how has it felt for you to have to extend it multiple times?
03:39Like people are just itching to go see you in Vegas.
03:42Feels good.
03:43Yeah.
03:44Feels good.
03:45I have to say that there's no better place to be than wanted.
03:52Absolutely.
03:53The success of this, you know, you know, it speaks to a few different things.
04:00One, this dynamic of what it is that I offer as an artist regardless to whether I have a hit single or either a record at radio or record in the world.
04:10You know, it felt good to get back to this concept of live entertainment in a very intimate setting.
04:22You know, arenas, they're really great.
04:24You know what I'm saying?
04:25But to be able to have a theater where I could curate a very immersive and, you know, and a deliberate and tensioned experience where people come in and they know that they're going to get their money's worth.
04:37That they feel like they have a night that is elevated, a night that would not only be to remember because of what happened, but how you felt before you got there.
04:47One, the anticipation because of the conversation, you know, you know, most shows don't allow cameras to be shown in Las Vegas.
04:56I welcomed cameras because I wanted people to see and experience that that feeling that is the true inspiration of why I am the artist that I am.
05:07It was these kinds of shows that entertainers put on, you know, in the past where, you know, you not only crooned to your audience, but you found a way to be social and serenade your audience.
05:21And she felt, you know, a connection to them through, you know, the theatrics of it, but then also to the emotion of it, the dance of it, the lighting of it, the culture of the places that I come from that I would offer.
05:36Kind of a snapshot or maybe a first look because people had never seen that culture.
05:42They don't understand what it's like to be in Magic City.
05:44Yeah.
05:44Well, you can't go to Magic City, but I can bring Magic City to you.
05:48I can bring a bit of this world of what we consider our theatrics.
05:55You know, when I think of Cirque du Soleil, I think of the women who, you know, are incredible performers and the fact that they know how to do these incredible things as pole dancers.
06:05I felt like, you know what, that's our culture.
06:08That's our opportunity for the world to be able to see it.
06:11And it should be put on a pedestal.
06:12It should be put on the most grand stage, you know, in America where Cirque du Soleil and Zumanity and, you know, Absinthe and Incredible Shows offers something else that's theatrical.
06:28So, Burlesque shows, Magic Mike, the Thunder Down Under, you know what I'm saying?
06:35I felt like I could wrap all of those things into a very intimate performance that celebrates my catalog.
06:45But again, made people feel really great for the money that they were spending to come to Las Vegas and see the show.
06:51Absolutely.
06:52And so Vegas residencies, they often bring artists face to face with, you know, the challenge of extended performances, you know, day after day, like very long schedules.
07:03So how have you been able to maintain your energy and your enthusiasm night after night?
07:10Well, one, I have three shows a week, so that makes it easy.
07:13Normally, it's a Wednesday, a Friday or a Saturday.
07:16A few times on a few occasions, there's been like a show on Sunday.
07:20But that's really due to, you know, my being able to schedule my life in it.
07:24It takes a great deal of efforts, you know, to try and figure out how to create normalcy in this industry period.
07:33As a parent who likes to actively be around with my kids and really help them in engineering what their life is going to be.
07:43So the residency of it gave me that ability to, you know, after seven o'clock, seven o'clock on the night, I was putting my babies to bed to the theater and having to show up until 11 o'clock.
07:57But, you know, as I said, finding the balance and having that ability to do the thing that I love that hopefully will be inspiring to my older kids.
08:10You know, I want them to be able to see that commitment.
08:12Like, oh, I found this at 11 years old and here I am at my older age.
08:17I'm 45 years old and I'm still just as passionate as I was when I first started.
08:22And you should do the same.
08:23If you find something that you really love in your life, this is the kind of commitment that you should have for it.
08:28Sure, I could be doing a myriad of things.
08:30I could be developing artists.
08:31I could be in a studio.
08:32I could become a, you know, a musician.
08:34I could become a playwright.
08:36I could become a, you know, a director, develop products, all kinds of stuff.
08:43But this is a true passion of mine that that has, you know, continued to inspire me to be creative.
08:50So I know you also announced an album.
08:54How do you see your upcoming album fitting into, you know, the current music landscape?
08:59And what do you believe sets it apart from, you know, your past work?
09:04Um, as I made all albums, it's an offering.
09:10You know, where it exists is not on me.
09:13I'm giving the offering and where it lands is where it's supposed to.
09:17Hopefully it lands on your heart.
09:18Hopefully what I'm talking about, you make a connection to.
09:21Um, hopefully this is yet another chapter in the catalog that I had been building since I decided to start, um, making music.
09:30Um, there's a truth that I'm speaking on this album.
09:33A truth that, you know, has made me very comfortable with the reality of my journey.
09:38And the things that I have collected has brought me back home, has brought me to the safest place where I could be honoring of the experiences that I've had and, um, and share it.
09:51Um, it's been a long time making this album and I'm really looking forward to it.
09:57Um, I had, I've had an amazing time making it and, um, I look forward to sharing.
10:02You've been actively involved with the One Pledge movement to promote awareness about type one diabetes.
10:08Um, can you expound a little bit more on your personal connection to the cause?
10:14Well, I've lived, uh, through my child who has type one diabetes.
10:19And, you know, I know detecting their type one diabetes before diagnosis could, you know, give you a very valuable amount of time to get prepared to live with type one diabetes.
10:32So, um, teaming up with, uh, Sanofi and having this, uh, kind of, uh, spokesperson ambassadorship around this movement that is really about screening.
10:45You go to, or either type in the one pledge.com and there's an opportunity to pledge to get your family screened for type one diabetes, uh, and then eventually speak to doctors, uh, rather you have a concern.
10:58Um, you know, this is a very valuable moment that, um, is being offered, uh, to bring awareness and also to clarity about what it is, uh, to be a type one diabetic.
11:12The difference, the difference between type two and type one diabetes, um, you know, I've done a great deal, um, of philanthropic work dealing with youth, but this is something that was, um, a true passion project of mine, um, you know, to collaborate with them and, and, and finding this screening opportunity, uh, because, um, I have a child that, you know, lives with type one diabetes and it is, it is really a journey.
11:42It's not a, um, a day that I don't, um, you know, hope that I could find a more combinating path on the day to day as my child is, you know, managing his blood, you know, as my child is managing, um, their blood glucose levels.
12:00Right.
12:00There's, uh, highs and lows and there is insulin that the pancreas actually supplies the body to, to balance it.
12:09These are all things that obviously a doctor will better explain, but the first step is one having something or someone to be able to access the information that then begins the journey.
12:21Uh, and, uh, the one pledge.com was an opportunity to do that.
12:26Uh, this is a movement that is critically important.
12:30Type one diabetes is not something that can be prevented, but it is something that can be detected early.
12:35And if you have these types of tools, uh, blood testing, you could, you know, not only detect it, uh, before any kind of, you know, noticeable, um, symptoms arrive, uh, before insulin, uh, is request as required or potentially, um, you know, the, the one balancing factor to keep your blood glucose levels high or low.
12:57So, so I wanted to offer that, um, and I, and I didn't mind being transparent.
13:04Um, I choose to, you know, keep the identity, uh, of my, my children.
13:10I have four children, but one of my children, uh, is a type one diabetic and was diagnosed at six years old.
13:17So, um, my, even my understanding of diabetes was different because my grandmother, uh, she was a diabetic and her choices in life.
13:27And, and, and, and what she ate, you know, more than likely led to the reality of living as a type two diabetic, but type one diabetes is a bit different.
13:37And, um, you know, if I could offer this kind of thing, uh, this type of informative, informative opportunity for you to get ahead, uh, then I felt like, Hey, this could be helpful.
13:51If I had access to something like this, I could have been better prepared.
13:55I couldn't have, you know, been able to, um, you know, have spoken to a doctor and know, uh, before I, I detected, uh, a loss in weight or, um, you know, my child, you know, being, um, uh, his, my child's appearance changing.
14:12Um, so it was all of those things that I think, uh, led, uh, not only to being an advocate for this, um, but, um, you know, contributed to this community, um, of people who live with type one diabetes.
14:27As an active father and also as an entertainer, um, could you talk about, do you feel like you have to be a little bit more hypervigilant, hypervigilant, excuse me, um, with, uh, your child?
14:40Again, preparation is the best key information is the next and how you, um, you know, really create a strategy to navigate through type one diabetes.
14:51It's not something that goes away.
14:53Yeah.
14:53Uh, once you are diagnosed, you live with it for your entire life.
14:58And, um, you know, there is a growing community that is exploring a myriad of things of which a doctor can either point you in the direction of, um, but this is a, a, a, a starter.
15:13And if the one pledge, uh, is an opportunity to at least give you, um, some preparation before you get to the actual next step of living with type one diabetes or your child living with type one diabetes, uh, cause make no mistake, you know, um, I know you've heard this saying like you're happy as your saddest child.
15:35Right.
15:36And when your child is not in your care, they live on your mind, living with a child who's a type one diabetic, you know, rather it's a device that's notifying, you know, his or her highs and lows.
15:49That's, you know, a relevant part of your day and you're constantly trying to figure out how to assist and help them navigate that process because they're young, because, you know, if they're looking at other others who don't necessarily have to have that.
16:05That type of consideration, um, it, it feels a bit, um, it feels a bit different, you know, it feels a bit confined, confining.
16:15So I, as a contributor to the community of type one diabetes, uh, wanted to offer something that I really felt could be helpful.
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