How Usher prepares to perform: Workout routine, rehearsals and fasting on Wednesdays
ATLANTA — Usher is in the business of legacy building.
The singer and R&B icon, 45, has maintained his soulful vocals, expertly choreographed dance moves and sex-symbol physique over his 30-year career, and he intends to keep it that way as he hits the road for his Usher: Past Present Future tour.
"I'm promoting a legacy: Past, present and future," Usher says in an exclusive series of conversations with USA TODAY. "I've been doing this long enough to celebrate the legacy of my music from the beginning of my career up until an incredible moment that I'm having as a result of what I've been doing in Las Vegas and also the Super Bowl and other live performances."
Here's exactly how Usher prepares for his concerts, from workouts to diet and parenting.
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Usher's workout routine
Usher's physical fitness is just as much about how he looks as it is about how he's able to move.
"I kind of have a workout routine that I do before I go (on stage), which is band work. I work with medicine balls. I work with light weight. Balance is a major part, balancing my core, because I have to skate on stage, so closing my eyes a lot and doing things actively is important," he says.
The process works to "keep my body ready for the stage."
Considering the physical demands of his concert choreography "that's enough of a workout," he says with a laugh. "You sweat for two hours straight."
Usher's diet — and how fasting on Wednesdays connects him to his grandmother
During one part of our interview, Usher munched on "fancy" chicken soup (complete with rice, cilantro, onions and more) and an apple; his dressing room had plenty of fruit to snack on as well.
As he starts to explain his tour diet, he asks, "On a good day or bad day?"
"On a good day I'm not supposed to be eating carbs. On a bad day I eat carbs," he says.
The singer fasts on Wednesdays, a practice he says stems from his grandmother, and one that he plans to continue while on his grueling, 58-show tour.
"Yeah, I've made it a thing. I've been doing it for some time now," he says. "It started with my grandmother. My grandmother had a prayer group, and everybody would fast on Wednesdays, and it was kind of like a focus thing and we all did it."
Usher says he's "doing it for health, also personal conscience, also (for) my grandmother. Makes me feel more connected to her." He confesses he can "get a little light-headed," but "once the sun is down, I eat. So typically that means for the first half of the day, I guess I'll just be really trying to hone in. (And) I can still have liquid" and he'll "still take my vitamins."
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Rehearsals: Inside the prep work
"We rehearse countless amounts of hours," Usher says.
The tour and its dazzling, high-octane choreography mixed with its use of AI visuals to reimagine Usher's life is a technical feat, even for a performer at his level who's been touring since he was 16 years old.
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"From the technical side, I feel like that is the future part of it. The fact that I'm using technology to assist me in ways that are reaching past the boundaries that are set for live performance," he says. "If I can find new ways to introduce people to a live experience, where I can take them back in history, if I can play with imagery and things like that.
"Hopefully fans will be fascinated by the way that I've chosen to use technology."
Usher's first concert may surprise you
"First concert that I went to was an Ice-T concert in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at UTC Arena," he says. "Second concert I ever went to, which is a little bit more along my speed, was New Edition."
He says he was "old enough to be invited by my aunt, who was given these tickets as a gift. She worked for the police department, and (Ice-T) had a song called 'Cop Killer' (with group Body Count) at the time. Kind of crazy."
But Ice-T became an inspirational force in his career. Usher recalls seeing the entertainer when he visited a Boys and Girls Club in Highland Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a "beautiful" woman.
"Being able to see him talk to us in the gymnasium, it really it gave me a spark. Like, wait a minute, so you can be an entertainer and have a girl that looks like that?" he says. "It worked to be a great motivation for me."
Usher and his kids: How he's parenting on tour
Usher is dad to sons Usher "Cinco" Raymond V, 16, and Naviyd, 15, (both with ex Tameka Foster) and daughter Sovereign, 3, and son Sire, 2, with wife Jenn Raymond.
He's leaning into his older kids' advice on his career and social media. "I'm like 'OK, I hope that I'm doing the right thing'" as they join forces on TikTok. "They're leading the charge. … But I always run things by them, just to make certain that, 'Hey, is this cool?'"
The little ones are "no different than my older kids," he says. "We read a lot of books together, but I'm challenging them to utilize their imagination. And instead of spending time in front of the screen, we spend time in the yard. We stay outside. We stay mobile, we stay active. They have a ridiculous schedule."
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How K-pop and more inspired Usher's Past Present Future tour
"I was inspired by some of the artists that are touring right now. It gave me some new ideas. Made me feel really good about investing in my show, and the type of technology that I see people using," he says. "It just made me think outside the box to see how artists that come from the K-pop world choose to do things. It has definitely been an inspiration."
But Usher notes "oddly enough, I feel like we fueled that inspiration, because if you go back to like the '90s, or better yet the late '80s, shows felt like that. They didn't have the technology, but they were dynamic in terms of their performance, and there was something really choreographic and very much so immersive in that way that made you kind of feel like you were in the moment with them."