Justin Bieber opened up about his new album, the Grammys, and, of course, his recent breakup with Selena Gomez in the latest issue of Billboard magazine.
The 18-year-old singer sounded optimistic for the future, but admitted he's been going through a rough time post-breakup.
"I'm not in the happiest place that I've ever been," Bieber confessed to Billboard's Bill Werde in his dressing room before a recent show in Atlanta. "I'm trying to get through what I'm going through. Like I said, I have my really close friends to cheer me up and keep me going."
It's no secret that Bieber's new song, "Nothing Like Us," is a tribute to his relationship with Selena Gomez. It's a quiet, plaintive track, and Billboard's Bill Werde describes it as "kind of heavy."
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Bieber said, "It's funny when people are like, 'You're 18. What have you really gone through?' I'm thinking, what do you mean? When you were 18, you don't think that you went through that stuff?...You're going through that transition. You have a high school girlfriend, you might not. Going to college. Figuring yourself out, leaving home."
Bieber also said that he would like to quash some gossip about his breakup with Gomez. "There's so many rumors," he told Billboard. "People say I call Selena every day and she won't pick up the phone or I'm chasing her down, and these are all fake stories."
"I don't go on blogs or anything like that," he added. "I hear things. People tell me if something happens on the Internet. It gets back to me, definitely."
Bieber's new album Believe Acoustic was released Tuesday.