"I was really nervous," he said of appearing on the talk show. "I was afraid about what people were thinking about me right now." He notes that it's been awhile since he's made a public appearance. "I didn't want to come off arrogant or conceited. Or basically, how I've been acting the last year and a half.

"I'm not who I was pretending to be," he continued. "And why I say pretending is, often we pretend to be something we're not as a cover-up of what we're truly feeling inside. And there was a lot of feelings going on in there."

Bieber says growing up in the spotlight can be tough. "I felt awkward up there," he said. "I felt like people were judging me." But he really wants people to know how much he cares. "How much I care about people," he said. "And how I'm not that person who says 'I don't give a f-k.' I'm not that kid. I'm a person who genuinely cares."

The past is the past, he says, but he wants to make "the best impression on people" now. "And be kind and loving and gentle and soft," he said. "And, although, people can call me a softie, that's how my mom raised me."