Free Justin Bieber by Justin Bieber Page B

her acts a couple times a year at Eddie’s Attic, the place where John Mayer was discovered. Mama Jan invited me to sing. So at the end of the program, after all these amazing acts who’d been training with her for years, I gotup and sang “Common Denominator.” At the end of it, everyone was on their feet, and I was pretty much in shock. (The video’s on YouTube. Check out that look on my face.)
    “I’d never worked so hard in my life – and I’d never had so much fun”
    Scooter sent “Common Denominator” up to L.A. Reid, sent it over to Usher, sent it to everybody, saying, “It’s time to record.”
    And they were like, “Yeah. It’s time.”
    Usually, people record ten songs or so, release them on an album, and follow with another album a year later. Scooter and L.A.’s idea was to do a dozen songs plus bonus tracks and divide them between two albums – My World and My World 2.0 – releasing them only about four months apart. We dove into the studio. I’ve never worked so hard in my life – and I’ve never had so much fun.
    One night, Scooter was driving me home, and I was lovin’ on this music he was playing. It was just the skeleton of a song – like a demo the songwriter records just to give you a general idea.
    “This is awesome,” I told Scooter. “Who is this guy?”
    He said, “It’s Adonis. He’s a writer. An artist too, but he writes for people.”
    “Cool, cool. Who’d he write this one for?” I asked.

    “You.”
    I was totally in shock. Speechless. Because I felt like, if I tried to talk, I was going to start bawling. You have to understand, I was still so new to this and the thought of all these amazing people writing these songs with me in mind was overwhelming. Even now I still feel that way whenever someone I look up to in the music industry wants to work with me. I’m just so grateful. I hope to never lose that feeling. Scooter cranked it up louder, and when we got to my house, he kept on driving so we could keep listening to it again and again.
    “Overboard...”
    I just couldn’t believe this great song was mine. We laid it down, and I loved it. Later on, we recut it with Jessica Jarrell, and I loved it even more. Finally, we had ten songs recorded. Among them were “One Time,” “Down to Earth” and “One Less Lonely Girl.” I could never tell you which ones were my favorites: I was proud of each and every track.
    Now it was time to go back to L.A. Reid and persuade him to get behind us and release My World in a big way.

CHAPTER 6
WELCOME TO MY WORLD

    I n January 2009, Scooter went to Los Angeles for the Grammys. His first stop was L.A. Reid’s bungalow at the Beverly Hills Wilshire.
    “What’s a bungalow?” I had to ask.
    “Someday, young Padawan. Someday, you will know the bungalow.”
    “Whatever. Tell me what happened.”
    “Well, for starters, one of his key people is walking me over to the bungalow – which is like your own little house within this luxury hotel where he always stays – and she says, ‘I just wanted to tell you how proud I am, couldn’t happen to a better group of guys,’ and so on. ‘I’m so happy for you,’ she says. ‘But you have to understand, L.A. is a music guy. He has his own speakers flown out to freakin’ Los Angeles to this bungalow every year. And, if you get to play three records for him, that’s amazing. If he only listens to one, don’t be mad.’ I said okay. She said, ‘How many you gonna play?’ I said ten. She said, ‘You’re not gonna play ten. Pick the best three and play those.’ I said okay.”
    “Wait, wait, wait!” I said. Sometimes Scooter gets going on a story and leaves me behind. “Which three did you play?”
    “The best three.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “No, listen. He goes, ‘This is great stuff. I wasn’t expecting it to be, like, that’s a hit, that’s a hit, that’s a hit.’”

    “Which three?”
    “It doesn’t matter. Because he listened to all ten. And then he