As Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” This week, Usher’s 15-year-old son, Naviyd, experienced the positive results that can come with “shooting your shot.”
On April 24, the “Confessions” singer used an Instagram story to share a “quick story time” about Naviyd using his phone to contact his “favorite artist,” British singer PinkPantheress.
“So…a week or so ago, my son, Naviyd, stole my phone so he could DM his favorite artist PinkPantheress,” Usher recounted, per Billboard. “Now I just so happened to check my DMs earlier this past week and saw a message exchange from someone with a Powerpuff girl as their profile pic…so I’m like, the hell is this? I open it, and I’m like, oh, this boy done DMd this girl from my d*mn phone…”
Within the story post, the father of four shared screenshots of his son’s interaction with the singer. Introducing himself as “Usher’s son Naviyd” and PinkPantheress’ “ true biggest fan,” the teen asked the star to follow him back on Instagram. In hopes of further enticing the singer, Naviyd underlined how he’d even introduced his father to the star’s music.
To his surprise, PinkPantheress responded, “Hahahahahaa this is wild!” The 23-year-old artist then offered to host Nayvid and his dad at one of her performances.
As the teenager shared his excitement at the fact that she even responded, Usher quickly took over the conversation, apologizing for his son’s “super fan” behavior.
“You can clearly see where I apologized for my son’s excitement,” Usher wrote under one of the screenshots. “But still, @pinkpantheress was so sweet to invite us to her show.”
Originally planning to teach his son a lesson for violating his trust, Usher reportedly acted like he wasn’t going to allow his son to accept the invite. However, after letting Nayiyd attend the show, the “U Got It Bad” singer messaged PinkPantheress as himself.
“My son is at your show tonight. I had to send him considering his level of dedication and creativity….to figure out getting your attention through stealing my phone…that’s commitment.”
Sharing the journey “from a text, to a concert, to the artist,” Usher reposted his son’s Instagram post recapping his time at the concert, which included pictures backstage and a screenshot of the Naviyd and PinkPantheress on Facetime with the R&B singer. At the conclusion of his storytime, Usher shared his “parental takeaway” from the situation:
“This was a great moment for Naviyd. This was him movin on something he was passionate about. Yes… he violated my trust in the process, and for that, I will never trust him around my phone, but I should have known better. Nonetheless, I appreciate the hustle and [his making] it happen…He masterminded this whole thing and made it happen. #HustleHard.”