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."