Bruno Mars isn't afraid to hold back.
The sexy hitmaker graces GQ magazine's April cover and opens up about his infamous cocaine arrest and his passion for penning songs about sex.
"It feels good to sing about," he says of his sex-driven tunes, including his latest hit "Locked Out of Heaven." "It feels…sexy. It puts you in a sexy frame of mind. It feels good to project. Sex is a great party starter."
Well, we all know Mars loves to perform and party (perhaps a little too much) and the "Grenade" singer opens up about the lessons he learned following his 2010 arrest in Las Vegas for felony cocaine possession (the charges were later dismissed).
"I was young, man! I was in f--king Vegas," the singer confesses. "I wasn't thinking."
He also admits he felt regret, but hints it may not have been his first time using drugs as he previously told police.
"Oh yeah, of course," he says of feeling scared after his drug bust. "I was given a No. 1 record and I'm out doing dumb s--t."
"I don't know where that came from," he reveals, in reference to telling cops it was his first time experimenting with drugs. "I was really intoxicated. I was really drunk. So a lot of that is a big blur, and I try every day to forget and keep pushing."
As for the shameful smiley mug shot? Mars offers up a solid explanation:
"I don't know…it was a picture," he quips of his ear-to-ear grin in the criminal pic.
Still, Bruno learned from the difficult experience, which ultimately inspired him to work even harder.
"'I can take this s--t away from you, young man.' That was the lesson," he says. "You've slaved away for years and years and years. You've prepped your whole life. It's all you know how to do. You're a kid experiencing life in f--king Sin City, and that was the lesson: It can all be taken away."
Are you listening, Lindsay Lohan?