Just kidding! Ryan Tedder was just joking about Adele, Beyoncé and Chris Martin having a collaboration on the upcoming OneRepublic album, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think the threesome couldn't still be on a song together.
On Wednesday, October 2, the “Wanted” singer and songwriter phoned into On Air With Ryan Seacrest and explained why he joked about the nonexistent collab at the Global Citizen’s Festival in NYC over the weekend.
“Yeah, I did say that,” Tedder recapped. “You know, let’s just say that I’ve put it out there so if and when it happens, know that I started it. But, for the record, at the time, no, [it’s not true].”
The OneRepublic frontman explained that he had done so many interviews by the time he reached Z100 that he wanted to just have some fun.
“I’d done so many interviews … and the last guy that I got to I was like you know what? I’m just going to have some fun here and I assumed he knew I was joking,” Tedder continued. “The face I was making was pretty deadpan, but it was dripping with sarcasm, and I just thought, ‘What’s the most absurd collaboration I can create right now? Adele, Beyoncé, Chris Martin on a OneRepublic [track].’ It’s absurd, but apparently it caught, and then CNN was calling me yesterday," he added. "I was trying to stay off my phone and then my publicist was like, ‘Hey, is this happening? I need to deal with this.’ And she’s like ‘Type in your name in news in Google’ … and I was like ‘Oh my God.’”
Tedder added that although he was kidding, it is “plausible.”
“… All three of them on a OneRepublic song is not going to happen, but, all three of them doing a song together? I’m hoping that I’ve now spoken it into the universe,” he concluded, adding that while he’s not currently working with those three artists, he’s open to "manifesting" it.
That said, he's more than busy working on other jams.
“I’m working on two things: a bunch of Sam Smith stuff is coming," Ryan teased. "And then physically right now I was working on the second verse of a Jonas Brothers upcoming new song.”
We. Can’t. WAIT!
Listen back to the interview in the audio above to hear more from Tedder, including how recent single “Wanted” came about.