Justin Bieber's mother initially thought Scooter Braun was "creepy" because he was hounding her.
The American heartthrob found fame at just 13 after uploading a video of himself singing on YouTube. Music mogul Scooter instantly became a fan after watching the clip by accident and was determined to sign Justin - even if it meant irritating his mum Pattie.
"He kind of stalked me, basically. He got in touch with a lot of people in Stratford [Ontario] because he couldn't get in touch with me. My mom's last name is Mallette, and my last name is Bieber, so he contacted my great aunt, who I'd never met before. He contacted the school board," Justin recalled to Interview magazine during a chat with Martha Stewart. "My mom was getting all these messages saying, 'This guy named Scooter is trying to get in touch with you.' After a while, it got kind of creepy to my mom, so she finally gave him a call to tell him to stop calling."
Pattie ended up talking to Scooter for two hours and after deciding to keep in touch, Justin and his mum flew out to Atlanta to meet the music expert. Soon Justin was being encouraged to record his debut album, something he had never dreamed of doing.
"I didn't know about anything like that. So when Scooter was contacting us, I started to think, like, 'Wow, this could actually be my life. I could actually do this for a living and make music and travel the world'" he recalled. "So that's when I started getting excited."
That album, My World 2.0, went three times platinum and Justin has followed it up with hit after hit. He's currently working on his first record since 2013's compilations album Journals, and the star is putting his heart and soul into it.
"I'm really not worried about when it's finished, I just want it to be perfect, so we're taking our time with it," he added. "I've been working with Kanye West and Rick Rubin. We've gone in with a bunch of different people. I'm just trying to get the best sound and have it be consistent and make sense with what I'm going through in my life right now."
