Justin Bieber just recovered from a scary bout of Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and is headed back on the road to finish his Justice tour, starting July 31st in Denmark. Before he had to postpone some of his U.S. arena dates, that run was fully sold out — a somewhat astonishing turnaround for an artist who only recently downscaled from stadiums to arenas after 2020’s Changes and its dire single “Yummy” failed to connect.
With hits including the undeniable track “Peaches,” Justice, released just over a year after its predecessor, is a streaming blockbuster, and Bieber appears to have made yet another comeback in a career packed with them. In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Brittany Spanos joins host Brian Hiatt to talk about Bieber’s winding career path, his five-year break before Changes, his pet-monkey-abandoning bad-boy period, his similarities to Andy Samberg in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and why the adoration of Billie Eilish and a viral TikTok sound suggest he’s still misunderstood by many.
To hear the whole episode, which also includes a discussion of Kanye West’s touring future after repeated festival cancellations, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or press play above. Elsewhere in the episode, Simon Vozick-Levinson breaks down the best indie albums of the year so far, and we play excerpts of our recent news-making interview with Wolfgang Van Halen of Mammoth WVH.
Download and subscribe to our weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts), and check out six years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Questlove, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, Gary Clark Jr., and many others — plus dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters. Tune in every Friday at 1 p.m. ET to hear Rolling Stone Music Now broadcast on SiriusXM’s Volume, channel 106.
