Robin Thicke sits at a corner table eating a bagel in Truffles at the Four Seasons in Yorkville. The luxe hotel is serving as his temporary home for his current nomadic life on tour promoting his new album, Something Else. A staff of females watches over him as he plugs away at a three-hour press stint. It might seem peculiar to some, but it couldnít be more telling of Thicke.

I've always been comfortable around women,î Thicke says. ìSome kids when theyíre boys they run around with the boys. I was always kind of Casanova. I always had some girl I was working on. Everyone else is on the playground; Iím talking to the chick.î

His experimental debut album, A Beautiful World, and the soul-baring sophomore album, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, have been sensual as much as theyíve been introspective making ladies all over weak in the knees. Thicke says this new album is an escape from the countless number of world issues plaguing society. ìMy friend calls it anti-recession music,î Thicke states. But the unifying element in his music is his vulnerability.

In the middle of the restaurant, that vulnerability is oddly in hiding. He hesitates, sometimes refuses, to speak about his family and wife.
I've learned to keep as much of that private as possible, he says, because people end up just thinking just one thing and in a relationship there's just way too much that goes on for it to be any one thing, so she [Paula Patton] inspires my life and she definitely inspires my music, but I try not to get into specifics...î

The details he does offer up are sparse. He met his wife, actress/singer Paula Patton when he was 14. It was love at first sight for him, but not for her, and part of convincing her that he was Mr. Right involved singing Jodeci is Forever My Lady to her on their first date. They've been together for 17 years, three of them as a married couple ó a rarity for someone in todayís spotlight.

He also reveals a big fear of needles that started when his brother Brennan began having insulin shots after being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of four. The fear was so great he missed a family vacation to Africa. Itís those stories that add the soul to his music.

I think you got to go through a little bit, he explains. I Have little ups and downs in life and acknowledge them to be able to sing about it in a song To be a soulful singer you actually have to focus on the feelings cause that's what music is or art is.

The details on the ups and downs are allowed in the music, but not here at this table. He readily admits that personal discussion and gossip makes him uncomfortable, but in his next breath says it's all worth it. That must come from the brooding, artsy side of him.

I'm an artist so I get intense and fiery and passionate, he says.

He couldn't be more honest.