Trisha Yearwood on Collaborating With Garth Brooks: ‘It’s a Good Marriage’

Trisha Yearwood just released her latest album, Every Girl. The record features a duet with her husband, Garth Brooks, on “What Gave Me Away,” but there’s a song her previous Let’s Be Frank album that the two wrote together, “For the Last Time,” which the two wrote together, although Yearwood admits most of the work fell to her husband.

“I usually will have an idea,” Yearwood told PEOPLE. “I know what story I want to tell, when we’re writing together. He’s the poet, so it’s kind of a good marriage in that way, because I might go in, like, ‘I have a title.’”

The concept “For the Last Time” was all Yearwood’s idea, but she acknowledges it would have never become the song that it is without Brooks’ help.

“I came in with that title, and I’m like, ‘Here you go. I don’t know what to do with it. You’re the songwriter. You’re in all of the Hall of Fames,’” Yearwood recounted. “And he started singing this melody and writing this beautiful lyric that was just beautiful. We worked on it for a few weeks. I contributed some of the lines, but he mostly is the poet. It’s a cool collab when we do it.”

Neither Yearwood nor Brooks wrote “What Gave Me Away,” but she instantly knew she needed her husband to sing with her on the track.

“This song was written by Lucie Silvas, and this song is about that person that has your number, and he’s got my number,” Yearwood said. “I couldn’t imagine doing this song, and not have him sing on it.”

Every Girl marks Yearwood’s first release of new music in 12 years, ever since Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love was released in 2007. While Yearwood has certainly not been idle in the dozen years since then, the 54-year-old says the time snuck up on her, but vows that she is now back, and plans on continuing to make music for the next several years.

“I didn’t really intend for that much time to pass, but I was busy,” Yearwood told Billboard. “I did put out a greatest hits record in 2014, and it had a couple new things, but I looked up and it had been a lot of time [between original albums]. I had so much fun making this record that I’m definitely not going to wait that much time again.”

Purchase Every Girl at TrishaYearwood.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Tony Barson