Bruno Mars is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and during the interview he goes into detail about the making of his third album 24K Magic. One of the most surprising revelations comes from Mars' discussion of how he was affected by the success of "Uptown Funk." Rather than being relieved, Mars explained how it put even more pressure on him.
"Coming off the biggest song of my career, it was super-daunting to come in [the studio]," he said. "I don't know if people are going to love this shit... I don't know if radio is going to play it. But what I don't want to have happen is I put it out and say, 'Damn it, if I'd just done this and this, maybe it would have had a shot.'"
Mars explained that the songwriting process can lead to false assumptions about how good a job he's doing, noting that he listens to the music in his car to determine its hit potential. "We've worked on songs till 3 or 4 in the morning, like, 'This is gonna be the first single!' – and the minute I take it to the car, it's so obvious we were tripping," he said. "Something happens when you roll down your window and you can hear the traffic and real noise – the way people are actually going to hear it."
He also took some time to respond to Kanye West calling him out for receiving a VMA for "Locked Out of Heaven." "I won one award!" he laughed. "But he was right about the pretty part. It's Kanye – bottom line, at the end of the day, we need Kanye. But what he said wasn't a sting. You can come at me all you want – I've set myself up for that. But I am my own biggest critic. Whatever anyone says to me, they don't know shit."
You can read Bruno Mars' entire Rolling Stone interview here.
