Unlike many of the legions of critics Justin Bieber has, Rob Lowe is one of the only people who experienced similar amounts of fame when being a teenager.

When drawing from his own experiences the 50 year-old seems to be more understanding towards the 'Baby' singer's recent personal downfall, rather than publically slamming him.

Lowe recently sat down with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on Sunday night (April 6th) to promote his new book 'Love Life', but it didn't take along for the interview to switch gears and talk about Bieber's issues.

The 'St. Elmo's Fire' actor told Oprah that he had "tremendous empathy" for the 20 year-old singer, who is going to trial on May 5th for a Miami DUI charge stemming from January.

"He makes really good music, he does," Lowe said (via LA Times). "But I think he knows the dark secret, and the dark secret is that 80% of his audience doesn't give a sh-t about his music. He knows it. It bums him out."

According to Lowe, his legions of fans aren't drawn to him because of his hit tracks, but because of what they are going through themselves at this point in their lives.

"They care about lemming think, and their girlfriends and who's oohing and ahhing. It has nothing to do with what he's doing as an artist," Lowe said. "He is the guy who's standing in front at a moment when they're going through a developmental thing. It's natural, it's all great, but if it wasn't him, it'd be someone else, like it was me."

This nightmare of a year for Bieber has also seen him be charged with assaulting a limo driver. The incident occurred on Dec 29th (2013) after he and friends attended Toronto Maple Leafs game, Bieber allegedly struck the driver after he wouldn't turn the radio up to his desired volume.

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On top of that, the 'Believe' hit maker is also dealing with a lawsuit from a photographer who claimed Bieber assaulted him, while attempting to steal the camera, this past summer (2013).

MORE: Selena Gomez to testify in Justin Bieber's photographer assault case

Justin Bieber
Lowe feels "tremendous empathy" for Justin Bieber