Brett Young Calls Wife Taylor His 'Muse': '15 Years Later, She's Still My Best Friend' (Exclusive)

The country singer, who's currently out on his 5, TOUR, 3, 2, 1 tour, told PEOPLE about his latest single "Dance with You," and how his wife has influenced his music over the years

Brett Young doesn't have to look too far for inspiration.

The "Mercy" singer, 42, credits his wife of four years, Taylor, for influencing nearly all of his songs — including his latest release, "Dance with You."

"The Cliff Notes [version] is we're coming up on 15 years since we met. And so we've been married for four, but our story's very long, and she's been my best friend for a really long time," Young says of his wife.

Though the video for "Dance with You" features footage from the couple's 2018 wedding, their story — like most — wasn't linear.

"The crazy thing is, we broke up three times in 15 years," he says. "So a lot of the new sad songs are also driven from memories about our breakups, and the happy songs are about us finally figuring it out and being where we are now. So, to call her my muse I think would be exactly right."

Now, the couple are the parents of two young daughters — Presley Elizabeth, 3½, and Rowan Marie, 21 months. Looking back, Young admits with a laugh that he was an "early creep"— he messaged his now-wife on Facebook shortly after relocating to Arizona in the hopes of making music.

"I had just moved to Arizona because a buddy was like, 'I know this songwriter that has a publishing deal. You're in LA and you're kind of spinning your wheels, so come live with me. I'll set you up with him. You guys write songs,'" he recalls. "And the first time I opened Facebook in Arizona, it just went, 'Hey, you know this person.' It was a girl I knew from Southern California and in the picture was her roommate. And I was like, 'Whoa, who's that?' So I slid into her DMs."

He continues: "It took a lot of work and obviously a handful of breakups in the whole thing. Anyway, 15 years later, we have two beautiful babies, and she's still my best friend."

Related:Brett Young and Taylor Mills' Decade-Long Path Down the Aisle — Inside Their Wedding Day

For now, Young is out on his 5, TOUR, 3, 2, 1 tour with "talented, hardworking musicians" Morgan Evans and Ashley Cooke, whom he says certainly don't need any pointers from their headliner.

"I'm not trying to impart knowledge. In fact, I'm nothing like them as artists, and I don't think that they should aspire to be anything like me. They should aspire to be more like themselves every single day," he says. "They'll find out that, just like I do, some things work and some things don't, and it's trial and error and if you're given the stage and the freedom to do that, I think that's way more powerful than a little old man advice," he adds with a laugh.

With the recent release of "Dance with You," Young says that the song was just recently added to the set list for the shows on tour. And, while the song is brand new to audiences, it's actually already lived a bit of life.

"'Dance with You' we wrote four years ago. And then it just kept not being right for the album we were putting out or too close to another song. We knew it was special, so we didn't want to waste it," he shares of the decision to release the song now. "I haven't sung it in four years. And so then you go to sing it on stage and you're like, 'I know this is my song, but this feels brand new to me.' And it's kind of scary again, whereas singing 'In Case You Didn't Know' is muscle memory at this point."

Related:Brett Young Says Baseball Was the 'Biggest Part of My Life' as He Pitches a Pro Team in Nashville

Young is also gearing up for the release of his next album, the title of which he has yet to release, but he says fans can expect the new music "middle-to-end of summer."

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"It is completely wrapped up and in a box and ready to go right now," Young says of the new, eight-song project. "I'll never stray too far from the DNA of what I've always done, but there's a little bit more. It stretches me in a good way. I think it's going to be great."

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