For Justin Bieber, returning home brings up some dark memories. But the singer didn't avoid his past while filming his YouTube originals docuseries, "Seasons."
In the latest episode, titled "The Dark Season," Bieber opens up about his past drug use, saying he believes he was close to "dying."
Bieber brings the cameras along to visit his hometown of Stratford, Ontario, where he was discovered as a street performer when he was just a kid. There, he recalls smoking pot for the first time when he was just 12 or 13, then later "popping pills" and "sipping lean," which was being ignored by the adults in his life.
"It was just an escape for me," Bieber says in the episode. "I was young, like everybody in the industry, or in the world, who experiment. But my experience was in front of cameras and I had a different level of exposure. I had a lot of money and a lot of things, so then you have all these people around me hanging on and wanting stuff from me, knowing I was living this lifestyle that they also wanted to live."
It was during this time that the "Yummy" singer was in the tabloids for his bad behavior. Eventually, he got scared. And he got sober.
"I decided to stop because I was like, dying," he said. "My security were coming into the room at night to check my pulse. People don't know how serious it got. It was legit crazy-scary."
Bieber also reveals that he was diagnosed in 2019 with both mononucleosis, a viral illness, and Lyme disease after he'd been feeling sick for some time. He's now trying to get back to a healthy place for himself and his family.
"I've abused my body in the past and now I'm just in the recovery process," he said. "I'm committed to getting better because I know ultimately being the best me is going to help me be the best husband, the best father, the best friend I can possibly be. And for all the fans that want to enjoy the music that I make. I can't do it if I'm not healthy, and I haven't been healthy for a long time."
This was the first episode of the series to delve into Bieber's health issues. The first four episodes detailed life with his wife Hailey Baldwin and the making of his new album, "Changes," which releases on Feb. 14.
"Justin Bieber: Seasons" is now streaming on YouTube Premium.
