Brett Young Reveals How Wife Taylor Influenced New Album

Brett Young tied the knot with wife Taylor in November 2018, but the couple's happy ending was a long time coming. The two have known each other for over 10 years, but took a break in their relationship when Young moved to Nashville.

They later reconnected and eventually got married, but those difficult times served as inspiration for much of Young's eponymous debut record, which spawned four No. 1 singles. In December, he released his sophomore album, Ticket to L.A., an undoubtedly lighter affair, something Young told PopCulture.com was in large part because of Taylor.

"Taylor's all over it," Young said of his wife's influence on the record. "Just the vibe and tempo of the record, I think you can hear, there's a pep and a happiness to the record that's all because of her and because of where we're at in our lives together. And we're both just so happy, it would be impossible for that not to be reflected in a record."

While the California native's life has certainly changed since he was writing his first record, he made sure to include a diverse selection of material, though the sadder songs weren't quite as autobiographical this time around.

"It was different," Young reflected of writing for Ticket to L.A. "A lot of the first record was about me and my experience and my life. A lot of the second record, the happy, up-tempo stuff was obviously autobiographical. But the sad stuff, we just had to change up the writing process a little bit."

"It was interesting to find places to draw emotion from when you're writing a song about something you don't have personal experience with, which I love," he added. "It was challenging, just because it was different and it changed the process a little bit from writing the first album to the second album. But I love things like that. I love kind of expanding your horizons as a songwriter."

Now that Ticket to L.A. has officially been released, it's safe to guess that Young will look to his fans to determine which songs end up making it to radio, much like he did with his first album and fan-favorite single "Mercy."

"I didn't think 'Mercy' was going to be the last single off our first record until we started playing it on my headlining tour last year, and we would walk on stage having left [debut single] 'Can't Sleep Without You' for the encore, fully expecting people to chant and cheer for 'Sleep Without You' because it had been on the radio," the 37-year-old recalled. "And we would walk off stage every night and people would chant for 'Mercy.' That was very telling. And so it was a big part of the decision making process for what the next single was."

While Young has so far released just one single from Ticket to L.A. (lead single "Here Tonight"), the album debuted at the top of the charts, something the singer was thrilled to see.

"I think we had so much success with songs on the first album, but you put out the album, you're selling a movie," he reflected. "You're just happy to have people go into one song at a time. You kind of watch the reaction that each individual song is having. But as a whole, to watch the whole project get received that way, it was cool. It was something we didn't get to do with the first record. So it was really gratifying and validating."

Photo Credit: Instagram / @taylormillsyoung