The Kiss From a Rose star admits he went through a "prolific" songwriting period shortly after he and Klum split in 2012, but he felt his words let the new songs down. Instead, he decided to put the ideas aside for a year and returned to the notebook when he had lived a little.

"I felt that what it was I was trying to portray... I wasn't saying it in the way that I wanted to do it," he tells U.S. news show Access Hollywood Live, "so I scrapped the lyrics, and kind of waited for about a year and then started again, and during that time I regained a little bit more objectivity.

"As a songwriter, you try to relate to people on a broader scale and sometimes when you're going through things, you can be too subjective... The key was just telling the truth."

Seal, whose new album 7 is out now, admits songs come to him at all times, and often in the strangest circumstances.

"It can happen anywhere; I could be out at a restaurant or I could be taking the kids somewhere and all of a sudden I have this idea... In the old days, before kids, I could just rush off; I could be out with a group of people, have an idea and say, 'Look, I've gotta go home and start working'."

He had a blast from the past at his daughter Lou's recent birthday party when a familiar song was played: "She had a DJ... and all of a sudden, I hear Kiss From a Rose come over the speakers and she comes over to me and she goes, 'You're welcome, Papa...' It was the sweetest thing; she put it on just for me."