Usher has revealed that he had plans to create a supergroup with Jay-Z, Pharrell and Diddy, but the project never came to fruition.
The revelation came during the singer's recent appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast. He was asked if he ever regretted turning down a collaboration.
"You gon’ hate me for this one," Usher said. "Jay-Z, Pharrell, Diddy, and me was supposed to be a group. Yeah, that’s crazy. I didn’t say, 'No.' I didn’t say, 'Yeah.' I think that we just got caught up. We all got caught up in the moment. We was talking about it and having secret meetings about it."
He added that the group met up to discuss the project several times, but that it never came together.
"We was talking about music and how we was gonna flip it, and the business of it," Usher said. "Somehow we just got distracted and it never happened. That’s one that I actually wish would have happened."
Usher has worked with the other three artists separately in the past.
Usher and Jay-Z worked together on the singer's 2008 studio album 'Here I Stand.'
He appeared on Diddy's 2002 single "I Need A Girl, Pt. 1," which made it to No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The pair also collaborated on "Better On The Other Side," a 2009 tribute to Michael Jackson.
Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé also worked on Usher's fifth studio album Here I Stand, which came out in 2008.
The singer and Pharrell collaborated on Usher's track "Lookin 4 Myself" in 2012.
Usher's career is still going strong a full three decades after his self-titled studio debut came out in 1994.
He's set to headline this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show. The game is set to air at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
The singer and Pharrell collaborated on Usher's track "Lookin 4 Myself" in 2012.
Apple Music, which is sponsoring the show this year, released a trailer for the performance titled "30 Years in the Making" last month.
Much of the video is centered on the singer's 2004 megahit "Yeah." The track featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris spent a full three months at the top of Billboard Hot 100. It was unseated by the singer's follow-up track "Burn," which spent another two months at No. 1.
The halftime show has been coordinated by Jay-Z's talent agency Roc Nation since 2019.
"Usher is the ultimate artist and showman," the rapper said in a press release. "Ever since his debut at the age of 15, he's been charting his own unique course. Beyond his flawless singing and exceptional choreography, Usher bares his soul.
"His remarkable journey has propelled him to one of the grandest stages in the world. I can't wait to see the magic."
The release also included a statement from Usher: "It's an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can't wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they've seen from me before."
The pre-game performance will include Post Malone, Reba McEntire and Andra Day. Many Post Malone fans were upset he didn't get the halftime show slot this year.
