Ricky Martin began writing a new CD, but then he had to stop. The singer says he got so comfortable revealing his feelings — and his sexuality — that he needed to explore that in another way.
"When I started writing my music, in this cathartic process, I started writing my book ... and I had to stop doing music because what was coming out was really intense," Martin said.
His memoir "Me" hit The New York Times best-seller list in November. And while Martin says he'd love to release a book of photos next, he's putting out the album that somewhat served as the prequel to "Me."
"Because of what I learned about myself with the book, I ended up writing the music for this album," he said of "Musica + Alma + Sexo," his twelfth effort, out this week. "For the first time in my life I was not forced to release an album."
The Puerto Rican singer said that kind of freedom allowed him to take risks and get emotional.
"There were emotions (and) it was not easy," he said. "You have to start opening doors within your mind, opening doors and closing them (like), 'I don't want to go into that room ... Should I? No, but I have to,'" he recalled. "It was very liberating (and) very healing."
Martin spent two years making the mostly Spanish CD, co-writing each track and reuniting with Desmond Child, the producer behind his hits "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She Bangs."
He will support the disc when his U.S. tour kicks off in Puerto Rico on March 25 and wraps up on May 8 in San Diego. He says he plans to bring sexy back on tour.
"It's going to be a very sexual tour 'cause it is a sexual album. So let's just have fun and provoke," he said.
Martin became a father to twin boys through a surrogate mother two years ago. And he's looking to expand his family: "Of course I want daddy's girl. In a couple of years, not now."
He also said though his boys are young, they're catching the music bug. He's even open to them being teen singers like he did when he debuted in the boy band Menudo.
"I'm very lucky because my parents supported this... If they didn't support me, today I would be so frustrated," he said. "I want (my kids) to be happy. I would never force them into anything ... What I'm trying to say here is that for many years I did things for others to be happy. I don't want them to go through that."
While Martin, now 39, was not open about his sexuality for many years, he was a musical success: He sold more than 20 million albums in the United States, won a Grammy and toured the world. But now, he says, he's reached a new high.
"I feel balanced," he said, pausing, then smiling: "I feel like I can touch the sky."