Usher on cover of Billboard
Mar 11th, 2010 by Bilal Ali
“I went all the way into being super husband and super dad, thinking, ‘I’ve got to be serious all the time. I’ve got to be the man.’ I put my swagger down for a minute, but I didn’t throw it away, now it’s time to get it back.”
‘Papers’ let everyone know that Usher knew what everyone was saying about him, his marriage and his relationship with his mom; that he understood what was being said,” Pitts says. “It was just to make a statement. We didn’t realize it would be as big as it was.”
Usher adds, “The song wasn’t intended to glorify my personal situation or people breaking up. I didn’t know if it was going to be the single or part of the album. I just thought it was a special track that would represent me well.”