Justin Bieber's Manager Explains Why He Thought The Singer Was Going To Die Young

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Justin Bieber's Manager Explains Why He Thought The Singer Was Going To Die Young

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Last week, rapper Mac Miller, née Malcom McCormick, passed away from an apparent overdose. The 26-year-old artist was at the height of his career, preparing to tour in support of his latest album, Swimming, which was released only a month before his death.

Prior to Miller's tragedy, singer Demi Lovato had a close brush with death after she too suffered an overdose.

The 25-year-old, who has been very public about her struggles with addiction, relapsed after years of sobriety, and on July 24, she was rushed to a hospital after an assistant found her unconscious in her Hollywood Hills home.

In the wake of so many young artists being affected by the nation's opioid epidemic, Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, is candidly talking about some of his deepest fears about his client.

Braun appeared on The Red Pill Podcast and opened up about a dark phase the singer went through not that long ago.

"There was a time when I would go to sleep almost every night"”when he had the money to fly away from me"”and I was worried every night that I was going to lose him," Braun confessed to host Van Lathan. "I thought he was going to die. I thought he was going to sleep one night and that he would have so much crap in his system that he would not wake up the next morning."

Braun, who also manages Ariana Grande, is referring to a period about four years ago when Bieber, who was 19 at the time, made weekly headlines for getting up to illegal and dangerous shenanigans.

Some of these incidents include police arresting the "Sorry" singer for drag racing while under the influence (he was reportedly using prescription drugs and marijuana frequently), and getting his house raided by the cops after he was involved in an egg-throwing prank that caused $20,000 in damages to his neighbor's house.

He was also charged for assaulting a limousine driver, and then sued by a paparazzi for assault.

According to his manager, the people close to him were "encouraging him to go to rehab for a while," but " he won't listen to his team."

Braun admitted that Bieber's problems took a huge toll on him because it felt like "I failed him day after day."  He added that Bieber's issues got so bad that he had to bar him from releasing music and going on tour.

"He used to complain, and he used to fight it and that's when he got into a dark place, but when he accepted his responsibility and took a hard look at himself and not what everyone was doing, that's when he owned it and he got healthy... He used to yell and scream at me, and he wanted to put music out, he wanted to tour, but I thought if he did that, he would die. So, I just refused."

Still, Braun knew he had to do everything he could to help better because of a promise he made to him six years prior.

"I made a promise to him when he was 13 that I would never give up on him. I plan on keeping that promise," he said.

Ultimately, Bieber came to a realization that he needed to change his ways, and Braun insists that despite having a good support system, the singer is now a different person "as a result of [Bieber's] own decisions, no one else's."

Even the 24-year-old himself knows that he has come a long way since 2014. In 2017, he shared a photo of a side-by-side comparison of his 2014 mugshot and a recent selfie.

"I LOVE THIS because it reminds me IM NOT EXACTLY WHERE I WANT TO BE BUT THANK GOD IM NOT WHERE I USED TO BE!! THE BEST IS YET TO COME DO YOU BELIEVE IT?" he wrote in the captions.

It's impossible not to believe it because there so many signs that Bieber, who Braun calls an "extraordinary young man who's been given an extraordinary life," has reformed and is in a much healthier place. In addition to releasing new music, he has wedding bells on the horizon.

The singer is currently engaged to his model Hailey Baldwin, and despite previous claims that they would marry next year, the couple have been spotted outside a courthouse's marriage bureau on September 13.

An insider said they heard the singer tell his fiancée "I can't wait to marry you, baby." Another told TMZ that Bieber thanked the court official "for keeping it on the DL."

We're so glad to see Bieber get back on the right track, and can't wait to see what he has in store for the future.

Blair isn't a bestselling author, but she has a knack for beautiful prose. When she isn't writing for Shared, she enjoys listening to podcasts.