Justin Bieber lived in a mouse-infested house

The `Baby` hitmaker revealed he and his mother Pattie Mallette were so poor after his dad Jeremy Bieber walked out on them that he didn`t even have a proper bed and had to sleep on a pull out couch in their Canadian council flat before he was discovered on video sharing website YouTube.

Justin said: "That place was really dirty. We had mousetraps everywhere because there were mouses - uh, mice - in the house. I didn`t have a real bed. I slept on a blue pull-out couch in my room."

Now the 17-year-old singer has admitted he would love to play poverty stricken orphan Oliver Twist in a remake of the 1966 musical `Oliver!` because he can identify with the protagonist.

He explained to The Sun newspaper: "We didn`t have anything in the fridge, except maybe luncheon meat for school and macaroni and cheese. I`d love to play Oliver Twist."

It has previously been revealed Justin`s mother thinks he would in a "lot of trouble" if he wasn`t a pop star and they hadn`t moved away from their old neighbourhood.

His manager Scooter Braun said: "I think his mother - she and I have talked about this - at times, she struggles with how protective we have to be of him.

"But I also think, and she`s said this in interviews, that she feels safer with him living this life because it`s structured and we know where he is all the time. She feels that if they were still in Stratford, Ontario, he`d be getting himself into a lot of trouble."

sections: Celebrities