Charlie Puth Wrote a Song in the Middle of Sex: 'I Recorded a Quick Voice Note' and Got 'Back into the Act'

Charlie Puth's dedication to music seemingly takes precedence over everything, as the artist recently shared that he once stopped having sex midway through just to jot down a song idea. 

The idea ended up becoming “Marks on My Neck,” from his 2022 album Charlie — and Puth, 31, has since recounted the story behind it to Interview.  

“I wrote the song in the middle of the act,” he said, adding, “Maybe I should have focused on the act a little bit more, but the melody just kind of popped into my head.” 

“I actually had stopped and recorded a little quick voice note and then had to get back into the act,” Puth clarified. “But that’s where that melody came from.”

Puth shared a bit more context about that period of his life, adding, “I was getting over somebody and what better way [to do that] than meet new people? It probably wasn’t going to work out with this person and that was what I was energetically picking up, which is OK. It’s all about the experience.”

“I remember waking up and looking at myself in the mirror, noticing these marks on my neck, and every day they’d heal and fade but so would the person who put them on me,” Puth continued. “And we went our separate ways. I’m thankful for the experience and maybe they are as well but I just thought it was interesting that a person can fade away at the same pace of the scars on your neck.”

The Grammy-nominated artist also admitted that he has always “loved being naked.”

“I’m going to be careful how I choose my words because I don’t want people to take this the wrong way,” he said. “Again, I’m not captivated by the way that I look, but I know that I’m not ugly. So sometimes I’d look at myself in the mirror and I’d be like, ‘I really do have kind of a nice butt.’ ” 

“What’s wrong with liking your features?,” Puth asked, sharing, “I have really long arms and abnormally large hands. That’s probably why I play piano. Even today, I woke up and it’s kind of fun to look at yourself naked and admire your body.”

The "Attention" singer also talked about his love of being nude outside, saying, “I’m not going to ever be inappropriate and naked in front of people who don’t want to see me naked. But if I’m in my backyard, there’s a lot of trees back there and I know that no one’s looking in, I feel safe. You get a lot of vitamin D. Is that what the sun gives?”

When asked about the responses he receives to his online thirst traps, Puth revealed how he'd “be lying if I said I didn’t see them. But I don’t do it to force this narrative or anything like that. I’m just in [a] constant mode of celebrating my body.”

As for his latest musical project, Puth says he does not “consider the album to be a sexy album.”

“It’s kind of like a lyrical self-correcting-of-bad-habits record, where I had to force myself out of a bad habit in a not-great relationship and do a lot of self-reflecting and become a better person,” he explained. 

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“I don’t know how hot that is to listen to in the bedroom, but I definitely had never made a project like that before,” the New Jersey native added. “This next album, however, now that I’ve grown as a person, the goal is to make the music that’s going to be playing in the background when I do look at myself in the mirror. Because I’ve never made [music] for myself. I’ve always made it for other artists and I’ve always made it for other people.”