I mean, the last thing I thought is that this song would be popular.
It's called "I Took A Pill In Ibiza".
I never thought they'd play it on the radio.
I'm talking about taking ecstasy in the first line.
I was in the studio with a friend of mine named Jake Owen, who is a wonderful country artist.
And I played an old tune of mine.
I don't even remember which one.
And he said "What inspired that song you just sang?"
I said, "it's about a girl I had a thing with in New York City."
And I mixed her story up with a separate girl from my past and some of it I just made up.
And he looked at me and he said, "Why don't you just tell the truth?"
I didn't really have an answer for that question, at the time.
But after leaving that studio, I boarded an airplane and on the airplane I wrote the song
that we're doing this interview about.
I was ice cold at the time.
My career as an artist was largely considered to be over.
So Avicii invited me -- Tim, as we call him (that’s a name drop) -- invited me to write
for one of his albums in Sweden.
Stockholm.
So I went over there and like I said, I was ice cold with a lot of free time, so I'm not
going to just go over there for three days in the studio.
I'm going to hang out, explore Stockholm.
And then he had a gig in Ibiza, so we wrote in the studio and I sort of invited myself
to the gig.
I said, "Yo, can I come to Ibiza?"
And he said yeah.
So I went there, and I don't want to restate the lyrics in my answer to the question, but
yeah I said what happened in the song
S-P-E-N-D.
Not 'spent' with a T. So people will ask me, "You're broke now?
How does it feel?"
I'm going to sound like a douche, but I'm not broke.
I was just in the process of wasting money.
But I didn't spend all the million dollars, I guess.
It's ostracizing being the guy in the spotlight.
There's a lot of protocol and I guess manners that people think they need to have with you.
So people act more distant towards you.
Because they don't want to bug you and things like that.
The first sad song that pops into my head is a song called "Old Love" by Eric Clapton.
"Mad World" by Gary Jules, from the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
Those are the first two.
I had released a song called "Cooler Than Me", when I was in my early 20s and it garnered
a lot of critical acclaim and popularity and I rode that wave and then the wave crashed.
There was no follow up song.
I tried, but there was nothing.
So, it was about the disillusionment that goes with achieving all your goals and then
realizing that they don't feel as good as you thought they would.
So if you're not supposed to get money and fame and notoriety, like, we're all running
around trying to get, what are you supposed to do with your 80 to 100 years on earth?
That's the question.
I'm blessed that people in my hometown really support my stuff.
This is part of the job.
But, in these parts, where I'm from, people…
I guess it never goes as low, at home as it does in other places.
People are just really supportive.
When I found out this song was nominated for a Grammy, I was in Southfield, Michigan,
where I live.
I live with my parents.
And, It felt really good.