Getty ImagesDrake Bell is at it again.
In a new interview with BuzzFeed, the erstwhile Drake and Josh star is slamming pop stars Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande for their obsessive fan base, as well as their rapid rise to super stardom, claiming "There's just a lot of really young, entitled people" in the music biz.
"I don't think a lot of these young people have to work very hard," the 27-year-old former child star said. "They're found on YouTube and, boom, thrown into the studio so they think they can get anything they want. Ariana Grande is a billionaire before she's been an artist. You have to work to be able to appreciate what you have, and what work did she ever have to do in her life?"
Seemingly taking a dig at the way Justin Bieber was discovered, the onetime Disney star also has a bone to pick with the Biebs' and the Mother Monster's fan base.
"I can't stand that, with a lot of the pop stars, there's this idea of 'Are you in our clique? Are you a Directioner or are you a Belieber? Oh, you're not in our gang? Then you're not cool and you need to go in a hole and die,'" Bell said. "I don't understand it. And what's worse is artists like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber don't come out and say, ‘I love having you as my fans, but you shouldn't be acting this way.' They just eat it all up, and I think it's repulsive."
"If I catch one of my fans saying something improper, a gay slur or any derogatory term, I instantly tweet directly at them and say, ‘This isn't how we do it,'" he continued. "Lady Gaga, who says she's so anti-bullying, was on [Howard Stern's SiriusXM show] and Howard read all of these awful, awful tweets her fans had been sending him, [and] asked how she responded to her fans doing the exact antithesis of what she stands for. She said, ‘You have to understand, Howard, it comes from a place of love. They don't want to see me get hurt.' I couldn't believe she didn't take a second to address her fans and say how disgusted she was they'd do something like that. But none of them do that. Justin Bieber just tweets, ‘Yeah, Beliebers, go hard' when they're attacking somebody. Ariana Grande's fans told Perez Hilton that he and his son needed to die and get cancer, and she just fed it. It's disgusting."
This isn't the first time Bell has spoken out about Bieber's intensely devoted fan base. He previously blasted the singer's height on Twitter and felt the wrath of the performer's loyal Beliebers, saying they are "the worst most insane fans in the world!!"
And he doesn't apologize for his behavior, telling BuzzFeed, "It's hard for me to be something I'm not."
Which is why Bell says he would rather embrace, rather than abandon his younger fans, unlike another pop stars who are growing up in the public eye. However, that doesn't mean he hasn't encountered his own fair share of problems, having filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
"A lot of artists try to run away from that fan base so quickly, but I would rather have my audience grow with me than to suddenly turn my back on them because I'm an adult now, because I take my clothes off, smoke weed, and f--king drive fast cars," the musician said. "I hope my fans will grow with me. I want to be like Michael Jackson—5 year olds love his music and 75 year olds love his music" (side note, Bell, Bieber, too, compared himself to Michael Jackson).
As for being a role model? Bell is perfectly happy taking on that responsibility.
"We didn't sign up to be role models, but we are," he explained. "Artists like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga have more sway over popular minds than a politician. They could get on a pedestal and say, ‘This is how you should treat people,' but instead [Bieber's] going around telling kids that as long as you have enough money and swag, you can do whatever you want. Instead of working to change the world, [he's saying,] 'Work to get as much money and power as possible because then you can do whatever you want and no one can say anything to you.' I just think that's a gross, awful, terrible message," he said adding, "I'm all about unity and loving your neighbor."
What do you think of Bell's latest remarks? Tell us in the comments.