With Jelena so far behind him at this point, Justin Bieber is no longer afraid to open up and talk candidly about his relationship with Selena Gomez.
The 21-year-old singer covers the latest issue of Complex magazine in which he admits his relationship with the "Good For You" singer was way too much, way too early in life.
"We were so in love. Nothing else mattered," he explains. "We were all about each other. But when it's like that and you get your value from that, people will always disappoint you. Your girl or your dude, they're always going to disappoint you. Your full identity can't be in that person. My identity was in her. Her identity was in me."
Despite the heartbreak and rocky road of being on and off-again all the time, Bieber says he learned a lot from that relationship.
"Don't fall in love," he joked when asked about the biggest lesson he took from Gomez. "No, I'm just kidding. I learned a lot. I moved in with my girlfriend when I was 18. Started my own life with her. It was a marriage kind of thing. Living with a girl, it was just too much at that age."
He continues, "When stuff would happen, I would lose my freakin' mind, and she would lose her mind, and we would fight so hard because we were so invested in each other. Love is a choice. Love is not a feeling. People have made it seem in movies that it's this fairy tale."
Other than his highly-publicized relationship, Bieber has also faced quite a bit of criticism over the last couple years. Though he's apologized profusely for many of his actions, does he ever feel as if some of the criticism was unwarranted?
"Honestly, I think the pissing in the bucket wasn't as big as people made it seem," he says, referring to the July 2013 incident. "Just because, dude, think about it. Imagine, you hear that f--king Ozzy Osbourne pisses backstage. Immediately,'Oh, he's a freaking rock star!' As soon as I do it, ‘He's being a brat.'"
He further clarifies the situation, "Dude, what is bratty about pissing in a bucket? I had to go piss—we all have to pee. The bathroom was like on the other side, and the dude in the club was like, ‘Just pee here.' He told me I could and it wasn't like I was being disrespectful. I feel like that was pretty ostracizing—bigger than it should've been."
Another incident that Bieber says was extremely misunderstood and misconstrued for the media was his DUI arrest in Miami in 2014.
The "What Do You Mean" singer tells the publication, "The police, they just wanted press; they wanted attention. I never was speeding; I never was drag racing…The cop supposedly wanted to be famous for arresting celebrities, and someone had heard him say that prior to [my arrest]."
Furthermore, Bieber promises he wasn't driving under the influence (though he did admit to drinking earlier that day). "I wasn't drinking. I blew the thing and I had 0.01. I might have had a beer earlier in the day or something."
Many people thought he was being a jerk by smiling in his mug shot and enjoying the "bad ass" moment, but Bieber says it was anything but a good time. "I went in, and I'm telling you that 24 hours sucked. It was really cold. That was the worst part about it."
The controversial singer has since apologized and continued to try to win back the hearts of the people, fans, friends and family that he hurt. In doing so, he's sought help from his church and Christianity—a topic he has some major opinions about.
"It doesn't make you a Christian just by going to church," he tells the publication. "I think that going to church is fellowship, it's relationship, it's what we're here on the earth to do, to have this connection that you feel there's no insecurities. I think that's where we need to be."
However, he clarifies, "Like I said, you don't need to go to church to be a Christian. If you go to Taco Bell, that doesn't make you a taco."
Amen, Bieber.
Catch the rest of his cover story on Complex.