Scooter Braun — former manager to Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Kanye West and many more — does not give many interviews, especially since he retired from management and stepped down as CEO of Hybe America last year. But he sat for a long one with Suzy Weiss for her “Second Thought” podcast that dropped today. (Watch the full interview here.)
In it, he talks about his admiration for reality star and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, his new girlfriend Sydney Sweeney (briefly), managing Bieber, Grande and West, and about Taylor Swift, whose ire he provoked by acquiring the rights to her first six albums (which he later sold, and are now owned by Swift).
He also speaks at length about where he’s at in his life and career right now, which is largely focused on his children.
“Let’s just say I saw everything, okay?,” he says. “I managed a lot of different personalities and I saw everything — part of the job is you see the worst and you see the best of people. I remember getting stopped by Paul McCartney at the Grammys years ago, and he was like, ‘You’re one of the few people who gets to the ride at this level, what this is.’
“It was such a unique privilege to have that as part of my life and get to witness that. And do you see a lot of craziness? Do you get to see the up and downs? Yeah. And you also get to see some people growing up in front of the entire world and being judged in their adolescence, when none of us get judged that way in our adolescence. I think the best thing you can do in the job is to show up for them and try to protect them as best you can. Sometimes you protect them too much. And part of that is giving people grace.”
