Two years ago, when Ne-Yo went on a first date with his wife Crystal Smith, he set out to make sure that their relationship would be different than the ones that had come before it.
The singer told ESSENCE, that from the moment he and the Platinum Life reality star sat down together he knew he wanted to be a good man–not just for for her, but for himself.
“The first thing I said to her was that I am aware that you are a beautiful woman, that you are smart, that you are driven and I’m aware that I can handle all of this stuff,” the 38-year-old recalled. “I need to know that I can handle all the stuff that I’m not aware of. I need to know every reason that a man has ever left you or anything that you feel like a man will leave you for. I need your track record. I need it all right here, right now.”
As the date went on, the two shared a certain level of intimacy that not only shifted how they approached the rest of the night but their outlook on the future of the relationship too.
“She laid out her dirty laundry, I laid out my dirty laundry [and] after this very uncomfortable conversation, the air in the room got lighter so to speak, and we didn’t feel like we had to work as hard to impress each other.”
In February 2016, the singer and Smith tied the knot and are now expecting their second child together after welcoming their son, Shaffer Chimere Jr, in March of that year.
“After that conversation, I had a laundry list of dos and don’ts in regard to being in a relationship with her and I took that list and turned it into a song and that song is ‘Good Man’.”
You can listen to the single, “Good Man” above. Good Man, the album, drops June 8th.