Brett Young Added a Woman’s Perspective to His No. 1 Hit ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ (Exclusive)

Brett Young knew marriage and fatherhood would change him — however he by no means anticipated how a lot it could change his songwriting.

“I’ve all the time been hell bent on being within the second with all the things that I write about, however I had a realization in the course of writing the final document that being married and beginning a household form of adjustments what you may and might’t do in that world,” displays Young, 44, in an unique interview with PEOPLE.

He admits with amusing, “I needed to stretch myself or I might have had a lullabies document very quickly!”

And whereas the thought of lullabies delivered by the velvet voice of this nation heartthrob is actually intriguing, Young is severe when he says he made a aware effort to push himself creatively on his brand-new album 2.0, which launched Friday, June 20.

“In phrases of my songwriting, I knew I must both dig again to my previous or write someone else’s story,” explains Young, who has served as co-writer on a few of his greatest hits similar to “Mercy,” “Sleep Without You” and “Here Tonight.” “I needed to write to subject relatively than expertise a little bit bit extra.”

Young admits that he did start this stretching course of over the course of his 2023 document Across the Sheets, however 2.0 took it to an entire new degree.

“I used to be in a position to faucet into each expertise, feeling, and emotion, and nonetheless make it really feel genuine and related,” says Young, who’s presently out on his Back to Basics World Tour, performing his newest single, “Drink with You,” for his ever-loyal fanbase.

Coincidentally, the much-needed stretch of his songwriting muscle in the end led Young again to certainly one of his biggest hits — 2017’s “In Case You Didn’t Know.”

“I wished to place the feminine perspective to it,” says Young of “In Case You Didn’t Know 2.0.” “For the longest time, I knew we had the story about how males are dangerous at expressing their emotions. But I imply, that story is as outdated as time. And if that is actually true, how can we maintain getting girls to be with us?”

Enter vocalist Hannah McFarland, who ended up coming in and never solely collaborating with Young on the track however truly writing the feminine perspective to the No. 1 track.

“Hannah did an incredible job lending the attitude of, ‘Yeah, perhaps you guys do not say it, however you do these items, or you’ve got these seems to be otherwise you give us these issues in different methods,'” says Young. “I simply wished to signify each side.”

But whereas Young pushed himself in new instructions, there are songs on the brand new document that deliver followers again to his personal endearing story.

“‘Full House’ is particular,” Young explains of the endearing track he wrote alongside Ross Copperman and Jon Nite.

“Me and my spouse [Taylor Mills Young] have been certain that we wished 4 youngsters, however then we had this actually overwhelming emotional expertise bringing [our younger daughter, 3½-year-old] Rowan residence from the hospital. Suddenly, we felt like our household was full with two youngsters. Rowan’s existence in our life was so highly effective that it form of modified our plan for us as a household and accomplished us.”

(The couple, who married in 2018, are additionally dad and mom to daughter Presley, 5½.)

It’s an inside peace not solely mirrored within the track however mirrored in Young’s demeanor as of late. “There’s lots of people that are not fortunate sufficient to have reached that time of their life the place they really feel, ‘This is our household unit, that is the plan and transferring ahead we shield this and that is what we deal with,'” explains Young. “I believe to some folks that may appear to be it comes with this adverse facet the place there’s now nothing new to sit up for.”

But for Young, it’s the overall reverse. 

“There aren’t any extra unknowns,” he says quietly. “There aren’t any extra new variables. This is what it’s.”

Despite this, uncertainty can creep in — a sense that in the end resulted in Young sitting down with Jon Nite and Kyle Schlienger to put in writing the touching and insightful “Who I Do It For.”

“As a lot as that track reveals me at my most weak facet, it’s additionally about me hoping that in some unspecified time in the future the children are sufficiently old to grasp why I needed to be gone a lot,” says Young of the track that has him becoming a member of voices with nation icons Lady A. “Being gone and on the highway is troublesome , however it’s for the better good of my household that I’m doing all of this. It would not make it straightforward simply because you realize why you are doing it, nevertheless it does make you in a position to put your head down and push by it.”