Usher Raymond is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most successful pop music superstars of all time. His last four albums (2004’s Confessions, 2008’s Here I Stand, 2010’s Raymond v. Raymond, and 2012’s Looking 4 Myself) have all gone to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. Usher has had eight No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Top 100 songs chart — this places him behind Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder, who have each had 10 No. 1s.
Since Usher's herpes scandal earlier in 2017, you haven't heard much from the singer. But one of the lawsuits filed against him, that was seeking $20 Million, in which the singer was accused of failing to warn the plaintiff of his reported herpes, has been dismissed.
Confessions, his biggest album so far, has sold more than 10 million in the United States, more than 20 million worldwide — and counting. Usher has collected eight Grammy awards and has 22 nominations. Usher received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 7, 2016.
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“As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something,” Usher says. He joined an R&B act called NuBeginnings at 10 years old, and everything in his life since has been in service of entertaining. After appearing on the Ed McMahon-hosted, nationally televised talent show Star Search at 13, Usher was introduced to Antonio “L.A.” Reid, the famed music executive behind OutKast and TLC, among others. He signed to Reid’s LaFace Records label within a year.
TAKE A LOOK: Usher's Top 13 Real Life Confessions
When Usher was 15, Reid sent him to “Flavor Camp”—living with Puff Daddy in New York City—a sort of boarding school for ascendant stars. “That became my normal,” Usher says. “That culture was my normal, so naturally I progressed to be who I became.”
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But through all of that success, his personal life took a few hits. He's endured a very public breakup with Chili from TLC. Usher’s five-year-old son, Usher Raymond V, nearly drowned in a pool accident—just a year after his stepson with ex-wife Tameka Foster died in a jet-ski accident. Not to mention his very public divorce and new marriage to his current wife, Grace Miguel.
“I was going through a lot,” Usher says, his voice still calm. “There were custody battles, almost the death of a child, and the death of [my stepson]. I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.” He pauses. “I went through a lot of shit,” he says.
Usher chimes in on a few things he's grown up to learn.
Usher On His Body
Starting at 183 before filming his current movie Hands Of Stone (he got down to 146 lbs. at his lowest), Usher, 38,...
... cut out carbs by taking on Dr. Gundry’s “Matrix” diet, which requires a “very specific regimented style of eating,” he says.
The star ate five to six small meals a day – fish, blueberries and pistachios were often on the menu – and worked out a “three per day” pattern for his workouts, which included running, swimming, biking and fighting amateur boxers in the boxing gym (where he also trained with Leonard).
“Once you clean your body out and really get accustomed to eating that type of food, you see the results and you feel better.”
While he’s still trying to stay healthy, the Grammy winner jokes he’s now working on a “new role” called “Usher Ray” and has become a little more lax.
“The first 20 lbs. are the hardest in the world,” he says. “When you get into that year of work and you created goals and met them, you don’t want to go back and completely fall off the wagon. But Usher Ray likes to have cookies on occasion.”
Usher on Sex
Usher admitted that "made love to his own music." No, for real! Usher also revealed he likes to set the mood when he's wooing a lady. He went on to describe his sexual playlist as including the following:
- Teddy Pendergrass
- Luther Vandross
- Marvin Gaye
- Usher
And since 2015, Usher is giving all of that playlist to his wife, Grace Miguel Raymond. "She's a great woman. She has a beautiful soul," Usher confesses.
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