And he likes being in public without having paparazzi in his face as he did when he was dating Kim Kardashian.
"That feels good, too," Bush said with a grin.
The Lions have been good this year, sharing first place in the NFC North with Chicago entering their game on Sunday at Green Bay, in large part because Bush is in their backfield.
The franchise, desperate for success after flopping to a 4-12 finish last season, made signing Bush its top priority in the offseason because it realized Jahvid Best's career with the Lions, at least was over because of concussions.
The Lions needed Bush, and he needed them. He signed a $16 million, four-year contract in March as a free agent.
So far, the team's investment in the 28-year-old, eight-year veteran has paid off.
Bush ranks second in the NFL with an average of 144.3 yards from scrimmage, trailing only Philadelphia's LeSean McCoy. He is running between the tackles with power and to the outside with speed, gaining 5-plus yards a carry to put him on pace to rush for 1,000 yards for the second time in his career even though he missed the win over Washington with a knee injury.
With an ability to carry the football or catch it in the flat or as a dump-off option, Bush has also opened up passing lanes for Johnson, who has caught four touchdown passes. Last season he scored just five times.
Johnson, in turn, pulls players out of the box to give Bush room to run through perhaps the biggest holes of his career.
"A lot of it has to do with scheme and the fact that 81 is out there," Bush said, referring to Johnson's jersey number. "It makes life a lot easier."
Bush seemed to have it made coming out of college, getting drafted No. 2 overall in 2006 by New Orleans after helping Southern California win two national titles and winning a Heisman Trophy.
He had personal and team success as a rookie, scoring nine times on the ground, through the air and on a punt return to help New Orleans advance to the NFC championship game for the first time in franchise history.
After that, though, Bush's career was stunted by injuries. His reputation took a hit because Southern California was stripped of the 2004 college title, and the Heisman Trust wanted his trophy back because college authorities determined he got extra benefits in college. And everywhere Bush went for years, cameras followed him because he was in an on- and off-again relationship with Kardashian, a reality TV star.
New Orleans traded him in 2011 to Miami, who made him a featured running back. He gained more than 2,000 yards rushing, nearly 600 yards receiving and scored 15 times over two seasons with the Dolphins.
Detroit did its due diligence when evaluating whether Bush would be worth going after, and got nothing but good reports. When he joined the Lions for offseason training, teammates and coaches couldn't brag enough about him as a person.
"You hear a lot of the TMZ and the Heisman stuff and all that different stuff, but he's the right kind of guy," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said last month. "He's humble. He's a hard worker. We're just really happy to have him and his personality fits in well with this team."
