Ne-Yo: I'd love to collaborate with Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran
Ne-Yo can remember the moment when he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.
He was probably about six years old at home with his mother in Las Vegas when Billy Ocean's "Suddenly" came on.
"I do recall sitting in the living room in front of my mom's stereo and just crying my eyes out...It's a really heartfelt lyric," Ne-Yo (born Shaffer Chimere Smith) told CBS News about Ocean's 1984 single. "I didn't understand it then, but I get it now....At that age, I could feel the emotion in that record. As I got older I said, 'I want to be able to make songs that make people feel like how that song made me feel. I want to be able to do that.'"
Now an accomplished songwriter in his own right, Ne-Yo has written several hits for other artists over the years -- from Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" to Mario's "Let Me Love You." By 2006, he unveiled his debut album, "In My Own Words." Featuring the single "So Sick," the set quickly catapulted the man behind the lyrics to fame. He's gone on to pen more singles for other acts, while simultaneously putting out a new record every couple of years. In January, Ne-Yo unveiled his sixth studio album, "Non-Fiction."
Ne-Yo, 35, took a different approach for this latest effort. He gathered material for the lyrics by soliciting ideas from fans. It was his way, he says, of "saying thank you" to the people who have supported his career all these years.
"This is almost 10 years and six albums for me, and the climate of music right now is if you get past one album you did something right. If you get to two, then the gods are on your side. So, for me to be at six it's not something to be taken lightly," said the R&B singer.
It also his way of letting fans in on the most intimate part of what he does: writing songs.
Many of the album's 14 tracks include bits of inspiration from fans -- though new single, "She Knows," isn't necessarily one of them.
"It's a song about confidence. It's definitely a sexy song," said Ne-Yo. "It speaks to the kind of confidence that's needed to where you don't have to say it. The person can look at you and just see it. It's the point where, 'She knows.' I don't have to tell her how beautiful she is, how smart she is, how sexy she is."
On Tuesday, Ne-Yo premiered a new track, called "Every Day with Love," featuring Sonna Rele, at the The Avalon in Los Angeles. The song, also cultivated via fan submissions, is now part of the McDonald's imlovinit24 initiative celebrating 24 moments of joy in 24 hours with consumers in 24 cities around the globe.
To create "Every Day with Love," Ne-Yo poured through fan submissions sent to him via Twitter and on a dedicated website.
"I would just read through, and the ones that I found most intriguing...the ones that really spoke to me -- those are the ones I used," he said. "And I took the ideas and turned them into 'Every Day with Love.'"
"Even if you didn't care what the words were talking about we wanted the music to be a kind of track that you will hear and it will make you feel good," he said. "I just saw it as a reason to smile. There's a lot of crummy things going on in the world right now and there's a lot of reasons to not be happy."
Ne-Yo says his goal was to create an uptempo song -- essentially "something that felt good." It reflects the hitmaker's approach to life, which tends to be a positive one.
"It has a lot to do with the way I was brought up...My mom was kind of the picture of a blue-collar mom, and her catch phrase was, 'This is temporary. It's raining right now. But the sun is about to come out.' That's what she would always say. So I kind of grew up always feeling like no matter what happened negative -- it was temporary," said Ne-Yo.
He often channels that positive energy into his music. Ne-Yo says he's constantly writing down new ideas and lyrics using the old pen-and-paper method.
"Music has to be more than sound. It has to be something that evokes some kind of emotion, or makes you think about something or makes you reminisce," said Ne-Yo. "It has to be something more than just sound in your ears. That's why the lyric is so important to me."
Ne-Yo recalls writing "Irreplaceable" -- with the catchy hook "To the left, to the left."
"When I initially wrote it, I wrote it to keep it," Ne-Yo said. "But I thought that the subject would be more impactful coming from a woman than coming from a man. From a man it comes off as mean and misogynistic."
Needless to say, he's glad Beyonce recorded the song; it went on to become the best-selling single of 2007.
"I don't really look at songs that I give away like, 'Man I should have kept that!' especially if it went on to being a hit. Then that's probably where it was meant to go," said Ne-Yo.
Speaking of hits, Ne-Yo currently has a second hit on his hands with Pitbull. They're on the charts with "Time of Our Lives," which follows their 2011 single, "Give Me Everything."
"'Give Me Everything' was definitely a moment. "We didn't want to get caught up in trying to recreate a moment. You want to create a new moment," Ne-Yo said in reference to new single, "Time of Our Lives." "Let's do something that's going to live on its own...The song came out incredible. Something works with his voice and mine -- people dig it," said Ne-Yo.
Looking ahead, Ne-Yo has his eyes on some potential collaborators. He told CBS News he'd love to team with Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith or Sia.
"I love what's happening with them. I love their artistry, their honesty. For them it's not so much about their image or the look, or any of that stuff that's really just trivial. It's about the stuff that matters the most -- the vocal, the music, the passion in the voice, the passion in the song. That's what they make people focus on," he said.
In the mean time, Ne-Yo has a big year ahead of him -- one focused on connecting with fans and getting the word about his new music.
"I know aside from God, the main reason why I'm still here is the fans," he said. "The fans keep you around. For an artist -- without your fans, who are you? Without the people who buy the albums, buy the concert tickets...They make your career. Which is why I never understood the artist that wouldn't take the time to sign an autograph, take a picture or whatever the case may be -- kind of treating the fans like they annoy them. I never understood that...These are the people who put you on the pedestal that you are on now."
For his part, Ne-Yo has accomplished what he had hoped to do at a young age -- write music.
"I honed the craft as best I could and here I am," he said.
