Roman Kemp recalls awkward encounter that soured Justin Bieber friendship

Roman Kemp used to be tight with Justin Bieber, but that’s no longer the case. The singer is looking back on the time he spent with the Baby hitmaker, and shared an awkward encounter they had.

Roman and Justin met in 2015, when the latter put out his album Purpose. In 2020, an awkward encounter, which the Beauty and a Beat hitmaker didn’t like.

During a private listening session for his 2020 album, Changes, Justin asked Roman to come on stage and share his opinion on a track he played.

“He singled me out,” Roman recalled during the latest episode of his You About? podcast. “He said I’ve got to come up on stage. He plays these tunes to all these label execs, looks at me and goes, ‘What do you think of that one?’”

Sharing his view, Roman said, “It’s alright.”

"Roman said it’s alright? Alright?", Justin fired back.

“At that point, I was like, I’ve got to double down,” Roman continued. “So I said, ‘Well, yeah. It’s not your best, not your worst.’ And that was it... My words were, ‘It’s decent’ - but I don’t think he appreciated it.”

Co-host Tom asked: “You used to be pretty tight with Bieber, didn’t you?”

Roman Kemp said, “Yeah…”