1. The Toronto Sun n Tuesday, September 29, 201554 SHOWBIZ
JustinBiebermayhavejustlostalegion
ofdevoutChristianfanswithhislatest
ramblingsaboutJesusChristandchurch.
Thepopsuperstar,whoinfamously
urinatedinarestaurantmopbucket,
amongotherindiscretions,insistshe’s
tryingtobeabetterguy—infacthe
wantstobejustlikeJesus.
InanewComplexmagazine
interview,theBaby
singersays,“Ijust
wannahonestlylive
likeJesus.Notbe
Jesus...Idon’t
wantthatto
comeacross
weird.
“He(Jesus)createdaprettyawesome
templateofhowtolovepeopleandhowto
begraciousandkind.Ifyoubelieveit,he
diedforoursins.SometimeswhenIdon’t
feellikedoingsomething,butIknowit’s
right,Iremember,I’mprettysureJesus
didn’tfeellikegoingtothecrossand
dyingsothatwedon’thavetofeelwhat
weshouldhavetofeel.”
BieberalsotacklesChristianityat
church,insisting,“Christiansleavesucha
badtasteinpeople’smouths”,adding,“I
waslike,‘I’mnotgonnagotochurch.’Ihad
thesechurchfriendsandIwaslike,‘You
guysarecool,Ilikeyouguys,butI’mnot
goingtochurch’.
“Then it was the same thing of,‘Just
because you went to a weird church
before doesn’t mean that this is weird’.
It doesn’t make you a Christian just by
going to church.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.LikeIsaid,youdon’tneedto
gotochurchtobeaChristian.Ifyougoto
TacoBell(fastfoodchain),thatdoesn’t
makeyouataco!”
Inthebizarrenewinterview,thesinger
alsorevealshisromancetoex-girlfriend
SelenaGomezwas“likeamarriage”,
explaininghe“learnedalot”fromthe
ComeandGetIthitmaker.
Headds,“Imovedinwithmygirlfriend
whenIwas18.Startedmyownlifewith
her.Itwasamarriagekindofthing.Living
withagirl,itwasjusttoomuchatthat
age.Butweweresoinlove.Nothingelse
mattered.Wewereallabouteachother.
“Butwhenit’slikethatandyouget
yourvaluefromthat,peoplewillalways
disappointyou.Yourgirloryourdude,
they’realwaysgoingtodisappointyou.
Yourfullidentitycan’tbeinthatperson.
Myidentitywasinher.Heridentitywasin
me.Whenstuffwouldhappen,Iwouldlose
myfreakin’mind,andshewouldloseher
mind,andwewouldfightsohardbecause
weweresoinvestedineachother.”
—WENN
Justin Bieber: ‘I want to live like Jesus’
LAS VEGAS —It was a def-
initely a Killer set from Bran-
don Flowers on the final
evening of Life is Beautiful
Music & Art Festival which
took over Las Vegas’ down-
town neighbourhood for three
marathon days and nights.
The Vegas native — who
reunited with his band The
Killers halfway through his
hour-long solo set pretending
his keyboards weren’t work-
ing before the group’s trade-
mark big ‘K’ keyboards were
brought out along with his
bandmates — opened his per-
formance with the new solo
song, Come Out With Me.
And the tune’s (impro-
vised?) lyrics couldn’t have
better summed up the festi-
val — now in its third year —
whose four music stages, art
displays, food villages and
trucks, craft beer and curated
cocktail stands, and learning
series, took over 11 concrete
blocks of parking lots of aban-
doned (and not) motels and
the odd patch of grass.
“All the way from Sam’s
Town to the El Cortez, there’s
never been a better sight,”
sang Flowers, whose appear-
ance preceded West Coast
pop-rock vets Weezer and
rapper Kendrick Lamar’s on
the largest Downtown Stage
Sunday night.
Unfortunately, the cement
was pretty unforgiving as it
soaked up the daytime highs
exceeding 40 Celsius and the
night-time lows — ha! — rang-
ing from 38 to 32 degrees.
Whenever a large praying
mantis sculpture breathed fire
near the entrance into the fes-
tival it was almost cinematic
prison-planet territory.
Heat aside, the LIB folk,
(all 90,000 of them depend-
ing on who you asked) over
the three days, were a hearty
bunch taking advantage of
free water and cooling sta-
tions as they wandered from
stage to stage depending on
who they wanted to see, what
they wanted to eat (I indulged
in Aloha Kitchen’s generous
chicken BBQ on a stick and
the Made LV friend chicken
sandwich), and drink (The
Grove vodka cocktail was deli-
cious) or, frankly, where they
wanted to sit or lie down as
the weather took its toll.
Flowers, who is touring
support of his second solo
album, The Desired Effect, was
just one of 70 acts to make up
the LIB lineup with the Down-
town Stage having the biggest
names like Irish singer-song-
writer Hozier and soul leg-
end Stevie Wonder on Friday
night, and Toronto rock act
Metric, British synth-pop vets
Duran Duran, and Vegas pop-
rockers Imagine Dragons, on
Saturday night.
One notable exception was
Gin and Juice rapper Snoop
Dogg who took over the sec-
ond largest Ambassador stage
on Saturday night leading to
a major fan crush that spilled
out onto the streets.
He would have been bet-
ter placed on the Downtown
Stage as the crowd thinned
out during the second half
of Duran Duran’s set despite
the group being in good form
with their fresh-sounding new
album, Paper Gods, and its
first single Pressure Off.
But it was often more inti-
mate moments that were the
most memorable throughout
the weekend like on the small-
est Huntridge stage where crit-
ics faves Future Islands held
the crowd in its spell, specifi-
cally endlessly entertaining
and dancing singer Samuel T.
Herring whose extraordinary,
almost Shakespearean moves
even made himself laugh after
each song on Saturday night.
Also on that same stage
Sunday night, during the rare
Supermoon lunar eclipse,
sadly partially obscured by
clouds, was American female
singer-songwriter Halsey
who reached out to a never-
been-kissed female fan near
the front and proclaimed:
“I would be honoured to be
your first kiss,” before plant-
ing a smooch.
KILLER FLOWERS
jane
stevenson
Music
BRANDON
FLOWERS
Burt
settles
divorce
Veteran actor Burt
Reynolds has finally paid
off his spousal support
bill more than 20 years
after his divorce from Loni
Anderson.
The Deliverance star
split from Anderson in
1993 after a five-year
marriage and was ordered
to pay her $234,000 in
spousal support as part of
their divorce settlement.
In July, 2014, Reynolds
was made to pay Anderson
the outstanding balance
of $154,500, which he had
previously failed to hand
over due to long-running
financial problems.
Anderson has now filed
court papers to confirm
Reynolds has settled the
bill, according to TMZ.com.
—WENN
WE SAY:
out of 5
HHH 1/2
Brandon Flowers was hot during final night of
Las Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful festival