Taylor, the frontman of former teenie-bop band Hanson has warned Justin Bieber to stay true to himself and roll with the punches if he wants to survive teenage fame.
‘I don’t think you can survive it if you don’t know why you are really there – if it’s someone else’s vision of you,’ Taylor told me during a catch up over the weekend.
‘With the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber, I hope they’ve got their hands wrapped around their careers and they are directing it and steering it because if not, you find yourself surrounded by people who don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind.’
The 28-year-old dad-of-four and former long-haired pretty boy can also relate to the taunts aimed at Bieber.
‘If you are putting yourself up on a pedestal, you have to realise someone is going to try and shoot you in the head with a BB every once in a while and knock you off the wall.’
Taylor’s empathy comes after 17-year-old Justin allegedly suffered a run-in with one fan last year over homophobic taunts.
‘That’s showbiz,’ says Taylor, who is in London with brothers Isaac, 30 and Zac, 25, to promote their album Shout It Out.
They start their run of five gigs at King’s College London on Monday.