Justin Bieber (17 page)

I’m sure me and the team would love to take credit for this, but the truth of it is that it all happened because of you. We are good, but we aren’t that good, and every day I wake up knowing I have the best fans in the world. Every day you go above and beyond for me, and I know I’m going off the storyline but I wanted to let you know that
I know
and I’m extremely appreciative every day.

Back to the story.

When my songs hit the charts in Canada, my grandpa and grandma were incredibly proud and excited. That’s been one of the greatest things about all this. It’s exciting in all the ways you’d expect it to be, but it was a great feeling to make my family so proud – and to be able to help them. It’s amazing to think about actually being able to buy a nice house for my mom.

We were way too busy to get cocky about it, but we started to realize how huge our fanbase really was. The week
My World
was released, we had an event scheduled at a mall in Long Island. Long story short, the place was a total mob scene. Thousands of fans showed up, and security was overwhelmed before I even got there. The event had to be canceled for the safety of the fans, which is of course, a top priority for Scooter and me and everyone
on our team. Even though we weren’t there and did our best to help handle the situation, two people from our team got arrested. It was crazy. Media reports kept comparing it to Beatlemania. Suddenly, the whole world was paving attention.

Offers started coming in from all over. German TV show? Sure! Japanese record store? We’re there! Bungee-jumping off a bridge in New Zealand? We are so there!

During the second half of 2009, we traveled all over the world, seeing so many beautiful places, meeting so many terrific fans. I know this all sounds like fun, but there was plenty of times I was so exhausted I felt like I was losing myself. But I guess what kept me going was knowing how much my mom sacrificed for me to chase my dream, how hard my team worked to make this happen and just seeing the excited faces of my fans all around the world. Even in my worst moments, you all seem to lift me up.

Traveling has definitely opened my eyes to different cultures and the way people see things. It was a total trip (no pun intended) getting to sing to my Parisian fans in French. I think it blew their minds a little bit. Traveling has taught me more than any school ever taught me. And I’ve done more geography than most students get.

In November 2009, I was invited to open for Taylor Swift at Wembley Arena in London. It was the biggest crowd I’d seen so far – over twelve thousand people. I wasn’t nervous about performing, just incredibly thrilled to be on there with Taylor in front of so many gorgeous fans.

Before I went on, Usher coached me on how to use the incredible energy that comes off a crowd that size. “Allow the crowd to work with you. They want to sing with you. I know you’re fighting to get each and every lyric out, but, a lot of times, give it to them. Allow them to be part of it, you know? Because they are. This is a connection. They’re connecting to you. Take your time with it, man. Make it personal. You’re here, you’re there – that’s their moment, that touch, that relationship.”

I was stoked. I got out there and did my set, and it went great. Tay James was lighting the fire for our last number before the encore.

“When I say Justin, you say Bieber! Justin!”

“Bieber!”

“Justin!”

“Bieber!”

“When I say one, you say time! One!”

“Time!”

“One!”

“Time!”

That energy Usher talked about was a living, breathing thing – times twelve thousand. I started down the ramp. My voice
was strong, the moves felt solid, everything was right until I got to the end of the ramp and ended up just a couple inches from where I should have been. My foot rolled right to the edge of the ramp, and it felt like stepping on a railroad spike. Pain instantly ripped through the nerve endings from my big toe to the back of my neck. I’d broken my foot skateboarding the year before, so I knew immediately that this was seriously messed up.

My foot was broken.

In the middle of a song.

In front of twelve thousand people.

And Taylor Swift.

I won’t tell you the words that went through my head. Meanwhile, the song kept coming out of my mouth, part muscle memory, part hardcore hockey kid, part Mama Jan training automatically kicking in. I kept singing, and the crowd kept going crazy, but people onstage started looking at me like they knew something was wrong. There was no way I could dance like I normally do. I was probably dancing like that spazzy chemistry teacher who chaperoned your last homecoming dance. Every step was another spike. It took everything I had to keep from screaming. All I could do was fight for enough air to get through the song.

Longest three minutes of my life. I pushed through to the end, and Dan brought it home. I managed to wave and thank everybody as I limped off, but, once I got backstage, I howled like a dog. I won’t lie, I was crying. It was just so much pain. Kenny scooped me up and
started looking toward the green room, yelling over his shoulder, “Get the paramedics!”