Singer/songwriter Jon Bellion is currently soaking up the success of Jung Kook‘s solo hit “Seven.” The track sits at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, making Jung Kook the second solo BTS member to top the chart after his bandmate Jimin’s “Like Crazy.”
But Bellion tells Billboard News in a new interview that he had no idea what the song’s destiny was going to be when he was writing it.
“l got a phone call from [record producer Andrew] Watt … this is probably two years ago. On a random Saturday, I kinda just took it into the studio myself and … kinda filled it out,” Bellion recalls. “It kind of in my mind fell by the wayside and was just like, ‘Oh, another song that you work on in a session.’ Like, ‘I really think it’s a great song, super catchy and can be really great for somebody.’”
He continued, “I think a lot had happened — I think [Hybe Corp. chairman] Bang and Scooter [Braun] linked up and they started operating and started to understand each other. I had no idea the gravity of Jung Kook being solo and it being fully English. I had no idea. I didn’t know what was brewing!”
While Bellion played a large role in what the song ended up becoming, he believes that the K-pop star and Latto — who has a featured verse on the track — are the true reasons why the track has had such positive reception.
“Records, when they get to a certain place, it needs to be tailored and it needs to feel like it fit,” he says. “The artists make it their song. We provide the bare bones and we provide the skeleton, but they need to make it believable, so I think that Latto came and crushed it.”
Watch Bellion’s full interview with Billboard News in the video above.
