48 hours with Usher: Concert preparation, family time and what's next for the R&B icon

ATLANTA – It's raining on Usher.

Not the "making it rain" or "getting rained on" that happens in clubs and songs – water is literally streaming down from the ceiling onto Usher's lap.

We're in the midst of discussing his career sacrifices when he leaps up from the couch in his dressing room at State Farm Arena. The flood gates (or rather, the sprinklers placed directly above where he's sitting just so on the deep, gray sofa) have opened.

"First time for that," he says, running to grab a towel as I grab three cups from atop the credenza, frantically trying to catch the tinged water.

When it rains it pours, and the 45-year-old singer knows how to make the most of a deluge.

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Look at the past two years – called the Usherssance by fans – as the latest era of success in a 30-year career. There are the viral moments from his Las Vegas residencies that catapulted him back into the conversation after the pandemic lockdowns. The NPR Tiny Desk performance reminded fans of their admiration for his music. He dazzled during his Super Bowl 58 halftime show, complete with skates, abs and famous friends. He got married at a Vegas chapel, dropped his ninth album, impressed at the Met Gala, accepted BET Awards honors and announced a concert film shot last fall in Paris.

Now, Usher is preparing to embark on his Past Present Future tour, a 58-show undertaking originally scheduled to kickoff in his hometown of Atlanta.

But the leaking sprinkler isn't the only issue seeping through. Hushed tones – that Usher is in pain, the rehearsals are running late, the dancers need time to recuperate – mark the days leading up to the planned first concert. Hours before showtime, Usher releases a statement postponing it to "give my body a second to rest and heal." The next day, he postpones the rest of the Atlanta opening shows due to a neck injury. Usher knows the setback is a storm that will pass, and he'll reunite with fans in top form, which he does in Washington, D.C., a week later.

Watchour video interview with Usher on parenthood, fresh talent and his new tour. Story continues below video.

Usher setlist:All the songs on his innovative Past Present Future tour

Usher learns from his past: 'I don't regret, but...'

Back before the arena ceiling started to drip, Usher was ruminating on past choices and current priorities.

"I feel like I've made so many sacrifices throughout my entire life and career that I don't regret, but now I can be very, very specific about what I want to curate, and I'll be true to it," he tells USA TODAY in an exclusive series of conversations.

Those decisions "offered me knowledge, they offered me wisdom, they offered me success. I gave my attention and time to music and what I was creating. And as a result of that, I lost a lot of people that are no longer here, and I wish I had spent more time with them.

"There are certain things that I really would have loved to have been able to see and experience – but didn't because I had something else to do – meaning birthdays or benchmarks or moments where other people who I really admired had accolades."

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Now, he wants to be there for everyone, saying yes to as much as he can, which often translates to limited rest and sleep.

During the little he does manage to get, Usher thinks he slept wrong on his neck. It's two days before the tour, and his holistic wellness therapist applies pressure to his upper body while he does a virtual vocal lesson. Usher reaches for the keyboard in front of him, eyes closed, voice undulating through the scales. He winces as she grabs his shoulder. "That's it right there," Usher says.

Nick Cooper, Usher's vocal coach, chimes in via video call. "Keep breathing, champ," he urges as the therapist kneads Usher's neck. "Dig in there, champ."

"Paintball wasn't such a great idea, man," Usher says to no one in particular. The singer, his family and some of the tour crew went paintballing as a bonding activity. "I'll be alright tomorrow."

But he's not. At least not in the way fans have come to know him.

Usher still feels the 'passion' to prove himself

Usher's professional rise began at 15 with his self-titled debut album and continued with 1997's "My Way," which revolutionized the R&B slow jam with "Nice & Slow" and "You Make Me Wanna ...," plus the Frank Sinatra-inspired title track. Then 2001's "8701" provided a trio of "U" hits: "U Don't Have to Call," "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad."

His "Confessions" album, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, was his biggest chart success and spawned enduring hits still heard at clubs, weddings and events, including "Yeah!," "Confessions Part II," "Burn," and "My Boo."

He's created across genres, dipping into EDM with the likes of David Guetta and Marshmello or Latin genres with J Balvín and Romeo Santos, before swinging toward Afrobeats with Burna Boy and K-pop with Jung Kook on his latest record. Usher has sung alongside everyone from Beyoncé to H.E.R. – oh, and he helped discover Justin Bieber.

"I think I always have done this for a passion, but that passion turned into a competitive exercise, where I felt like I had to work hard in order to be recognized, because I didn't actually just get it," he says. "Sure I had skill, sure I had a hit record, sure I had a record company to stand behind me and pay money to promote and market and build my brand. But I always felt like I had to prove myself and earn my keep."

The underdog mentality shines through, even for an industry veteran.

"Usher edited the Vegas show all the way to the last day," says wife Jenn Raymond. "He never stops."

Earlier that day, in oversized charcoal overalls and an apropos "U" chain, Jenn joins their youngest kids Sovereign, 3, and Sire, 2, in a game of "red light, green light" as Usher does a fitting. Heavy little footsteps echo across the wood floors and delighted children's voices ring out in an otherwise muted studio. He eventually joins the game, listening intently to his daughter's instructions.

Usher has two more children, sons with ex Tameka Foster named Usher "Cinco" Raymond V, 16, and Naviyd, 15. Crafting a tour, like parenting, becomes about controlled chaos, logistics, interruptions and decisions. His kids keep him in the moment, and he says "their schedule is probably more hectic than mine."

"Today was Naviyd's first day of school, he's a sophomore, (and) … Sovereign's first day of preschool. I'm going to tell the truth: I didn't see them off this morning, but I saw them when they came home. I picked Sovereign up from school, and I just didn't want to miss that moment for her."

He sees himself as "no different than any other parent. I just have a kind of big thing going on at the same time. … It just becomes a bit complicated to balance all of it."

As present as he tries to be, Usher's also thinking about the future.

"My range and how I approach singing has changed so that I can accommodate what I'm trying to do as a vocalist," he says. "I was trying my hardest to think about the long-term goal. Do I want to be able to sing when I'm in my 60s and 70s? I'd like to. That doesn't mean that's going to be the only thing that I do, but I'd like to have that as an option to sing for my grandkids."

Usher can wield his sex-symbol status and his sensitivity

Usher is shirtless for the first of many times to come on this tour.

It happens for a quiet moment as he slips in and out of potential outfits for a photo shoot promoting an upcoming project, but the signature abs are still there.

While Usher's time in the spotlight has been defined by his heartbreak ballads, it's equally distinguished by his sex-symbol status. He'll bare his chest while baring his soul. He's a heat-seeking missile for love, lust, seduction, romance, toxicity, truth.

His candidness has gotten him this far. Usher Raymond IV didn't have a close relationship with his father, Usher Raymond III, a fact he poured out during his BET Awards Lifetime Achievement Award speech and which he incorporates into the tour visuals. He's belted his "Confessions" about relationships and himself for the world to hear. Even when fans fell off in a mid-2010s career slump and his personal life was in turmoil (he divorced ex-wife Grace Miguel in 2018), he took time off and then "decided to go to Las Vegas to just remind myself what I do": entertain.

"I think somewhere along the lines, I got caught up in trying to be No. 1, and being No. 1 was more important than just being passionate," he says. "It wasn't until I got back to just being passionate that this (recent success) has happened."

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Curate and connect: The future of Usher

It's not 7 'o clock on the dot, and we're not in a drop top cruising the streets. But it's a little after 3 p.m. and I'm riding shotgun as Usher drives his wife, publicist and me to the arena. While driving, as any budding elder would, Usher can't help but comment on how fast the city is transforming. He's contributing to the development.

"It's about roughly 40 acres of unoccupied space that before was like parking. But there's a theater that I'm going to build right here" with Live Nation he says, pointing to The Gulch, just across from the arena and Mercedes Benz Stadium. The planned 5,000-seat venue will allow Usher "a chance to host and have residency plays here. Artists can have residency here. The idea is to create a landmark and a state-of-the-art theater," bringing in architecture, design and technology ideas from London, Paris, Berlin, Vegas and more.

"I played the Super Bowl, but believe it or not, there's probably still people who don't know my name and don't know me," he says. "So for that experience and that person who I want to offer something, maybe I have to take a different approach. Maybe it's not music that makes that connection. Maybe I can curate a different type of experience."

He talks animatedly about the future, pondering an EGOT (rarified air of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award wins); he's acted in movies including 2005's "In the Mix" and 2016's "Hands of Stone," and made his Broadway debut in "Chicago" in 2006.

He'd love to act and produce TV shows or movies – moves that demand creativity and courage for success.

"I don't like limits, and I think I've lived my life within limits and bounds for so long that I just want to break all the boundaries and go back and reimagine some of the things, because I didn't get a chance to share it," he says.

Usher's youthful drive and shrewd eye combine for a tour like none he's done before

Everyone agrees: Usher would be here all night if it were entirely up to him. Tinkering, perfecting, adjusting. 

"He definitely has the drive as if he was 19 years old," says Shawn "Shizz" Porter, Usher's longtime friend and barber of 21 years.

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It's 9:44 p.m. on the Monday before tour was set to begin, and Usher rehearses with his dancers backstage on the Atlanta Hawks practice court to "Good Kisser," a short interpolation of Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat" swaying in. He's flipping the dancers up and down, dipping them low, lifting them up, doing the footwork he's known for.

By the next night, Usher is in such pain that he can't participate in the final dress rehearsal. His creative director Aakomon Jones serves as his stand-in on stage. A handler walks his goldendoodle, Scarlett, down the arena floor. Usher and Jenn are perched in the stands; his arms are folded. He sits next to a team member with a laptop, hand on his face, taking in the scene on stage.

He doesn't bob his head, he doesn't mouth the lyrics. He just watches, brow slightly furrowed. He's analyzing.

"I'm very mindful of the standards between white and Black artists, or artists who are young and come from a very specific culture, and then that culture became relevant in time. So the people who were gatekeeping to not allow certain cultural experiences in, or not allow certain regions of people to be recognized, as time went on, I naturally … I guess I became more relevant," he says. "Now I'm kind of living out in real time what I think of and what I dream of, the way I see things."

Despite a tempestuous lead-up to the tour, Usher is ready for this moment. His technologically advanced production takes fans through past, present and future – all looking bright.

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