Jesse McCartney in New York City on April 3, 2024.Photo:Cindy Ord/Getty
Cindy Ord/Getty
The singer, who turns 37 on Tuesday, April 9 and released a new EP calledAll’s Wellon Friday, April 5, tells PEOPLE that “Beautiful Soul” is the tune that changed his life.
“I remember the first time I heard that song, I was coming out of my SAT exam and I heard it on the radio on Z100,” he says, “and I remember thinking I didn’t have to worry about what was going on with my SATs because I had made it!”
Jesse McCartney in New York City in September 2004.Paul Hawthorne/Getty
Paul Hawthorne/Getty
“It was sort of the beginning of this career that would transpire, and I remember traveling the world and going overseas and people that didn’t speak English knew the song and knew my name,” McCartney recalls. “I couldn’t communicate with them linguistically, but through music we could, and it was really this special, crazy moment.”
And while hearing his song on the radio for the first time made his exam score seem inconsequential, McCartney did in fact fair “pretty good.”
“I mean, I did OK. I think I took it twice. I think the first time I kind of bombed it. I think the second time I got a 1210 or something, 1220. I was never an academic, but I did really well in English. I was not great at math,” he says with a laugh.
Jesse McCartney’s new EP All’s Well.Sam Dameshek
Sam Dameshek
McCartney says the song’s inspiration is just as the title suggests, and he andhis wife, Katie Peterson, are beginning to dabble with the idea of expanding their own family.
Jesse McCartney and wife Katie Peterson in West Hollywood in July 2018.Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan/Getty
Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan/Getty
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“It was just nice to do pop music like that again, which I haven’t done in a really long time. And as far as the title goes, there is a song on the EP called ‘The Well,’ and it just sort of was a play on that because it’s probably one of the more morose songs on the record, but I think I just wanted to leave the listener with sort of a redemptive touch, which is that all is well despite that song and despite the rest of the project,” McCartney says.
“And after 20 years of just making music, it just felt like a really nice, subtle, ‘Hey, all is still good. All is well.’”
source: people.com
