Lee claimed Bieber's record company made multiple requests to edit out his bad behaviour. Photo / Getty Images
Lee claimed Bieber's record company made multiple requests to edit out his bad behaviour. Photo / Getty Images
The Aussie star didn't hold back when recounting the painful details of his worst celebrity interview on-air today.
Australian comedian and broadcaster Andy Lee didn't hold back when he dished the dirt on one of his worst-ever celebrity interviews during a candid radio appearance today.
Lee was a guest on Nova's Fitzy & Wippa this morning– and a song from Justin Bieber stirred up some painful memories for the comic, who interviewed a then-21-year-old Justin Bieber with comedy partner Hamish Blake during the singer's September 2015 Australian visit.
"Bieber was one of the least favourite guests I've ever had on The Hamish & Andy Show," he revealed.
Hamish and Andy (centre) meet Justin Bieber during his 2015 appearance on their show. Photo / Supplied
Lee claimed that Bieber had turned up late and proceeded to eat a sandwich during the interview.
"And I said, 'Would you like to stop for a second and finish your sandwich and we can keep going?' He's like, 'No'."
He also said Bieber's record company had asked Hamish and Andy to incorporate table tennis into their interview because the singer "really wants to play table tennis".
"He took on Hamish's dad because Hamish's dad was the only person who played table tennis ... And then he took the game really seriously. He swore at Hamish's dad, which we edited out," he said.
Worse was to come during Bieber's rooftop performance for the radio station, singing an acoustic set to an audience of hundreds of screaming fans.
Lee claimed Bieber's record company made multiple requests to edit out his bad behaviour. Photo / Getty Images
"So obviously, it's at a time in his life when he was just getting flown around and getting screamed at by girls," Lee began.
"But he's playing this rooftop gig, and they're singing along with the song, and he goes 'Stop, stop, stop, stop. No one came here to hear you. If I came here with my full band, that'd be fine, but it's just me acoustic. I'm trying to do something real. No one came here to hear you. We'll start again.'"
Lee said that, as with his swearing at Hamish's father, Bieber's record company had the onstage outburst removed before it went to air: "It felt like a day of just cutting out his bad habits."
Lee did say Bieber's handlers were "the most delightful people I'd ever met" who were "obviously used to putting out fires". And he said he hoped that almost seven years on, it might be a different story interviewing the Bieber of today.
The gig where Lee claims Bieber told his singing fans: "Stop, stop, stop, stop. No one came here to hear you." Photo / Supplied
"To defend him, it was a while ago, and I couldn't imagine being a child star and not knowing any different," he said.
Lee isn't the only person to name Bieber as their worst celebrity interview - in 2016 US talk show host Chelsea Handler told Variety she'd suffered through an "uncomfortable" interview with the singer.
"He was trying to flirt with me and it was so uncomfortable," she said.
"Like, that's his schtick. Like he would come on and flirt with you and you just felt like a child molester right away. And I was like, I don't want to feel that way."
