With a love like this, there's no way Jesse McCartney is leavin' the music industry anytime soon.
It's hard to believe that it has been more than 15 years since the singer captivated fans with his hit single "Beautiful Soul." But now at 34, the musician is engaged to Katie Peterson, planning a wedding and releasing more personal new music.
"I've actually not done a ton of albums considering how many years I've been around and I've actually had a lot of time between each," Jesse explained in an exclusive interview with E! News. "I feel like life sort of needs to happen between each record to be able to write something special and new. And I think for me in this case, obviously, a lot of it was my relationship with Katie and how that growth has affected me and affected my writing."
The Dream Street member added, "In this album, I go into that quite a bit and what that's been like…I think overall, as far as like the development of writing, when you're younger, you write what you know and I just feel like I'm getting better because I know more things now than, let's say, when I was 16. I have been in more relationships. I've seen how the world works for a little longer than I did back then."
In his new single "Kiss the World Goodbye," Jesse sings about an unbreakable bond with a special someone that can overcome outside noise and critics. "When we on the cloud and we up this high / Every other thing is such a waste of time," he sings. "Cuz as long as ‘we's' always you and me me / We can go kiss the world goodbye."
According to Jesse, the song and accompanying music video released this week has a Bonnie and Clyde kind of feel.
"We wrote this song about people who go on the Internet and just pontificate anything that pops into their brain about you and your relationship or you and the girl that you're dating and this was sort of inspired by those kinds of people," he explained. "You hear it in the first verse. It doesn't matter what anybody says. At the end of the day, we're happy—you're my person and I'm your person."
In addition to hitting the road as part of the New Stage tour, Jesse is also hard at work planning a wedding with Katie. During our interview, the groom revealed he was looking for suits later in the day.
At the same time, the singer was quick to give credit to his fiancée for taking charge of many of the logistics.
"It's going to be up in Carmel and it's going to be at the end of the year in the fall, sometime in October, and it's going to be about 150 guests and that's about all I know," he teased. "I haven't seen her dress. The first time I'm going to see it is when she walks down the aisle. We're not doing any photos before...I'm just excited to try the cake. I get to be in charge of that and the music, of course."
Sounds like one "Beautiful Soul."