"Wasted Time," Keith Urban's third single from his upcoming Ripcord album, is in the Top 20 and climbing -- but it almost didn't even make the record. In fact, Urban tells The Boot, the song was written in late January and early February -- only about a month before the singer revealed the project's release date.

"I’m glad the record took a little bit longer, because when that song came along, [it] suddenly felt very much like the right single," Urban explains. "In some ways, it’s becoming now the first single, the first single to set the record up."

It was February of 2015 when Urban first shared that he was “just starting work on” what would become Ripcord. The process, the singer says, took almost a year and a half -- and, he admits, drove his record company, Capitol Nashville, "bonkers."

"I felt like I needed a little bit longer, a little bit longer. It’s got to be right," Urban reveals. "The first single had come out because I thought the record was close to being done, and then suddenly, I didn’t feel like the record was close to being done, although I knew we had strong songs. [But] "Break on Me" was already done, so that felt like a really good next single."

Whenever Urban decides to release a fourth single from Ripcord, he'll have an eclectic list of songs to choose from, from his duet with Carrie Underwood, "The Fighter," to the bluesy "Blue Ain't Your Color," to the more traditional-sounding "Boy Gets a Truck." The artist says that he feels a special affinity for all 13 songs on Ripcord.

"I love them all the same, but for different reasons. I [also] love all the songs that didn’t make the record, which was so heartbreaking, in not putting them on, but I wanted to make a more concise, cohesive record, which didn’t necessarily mean having 17, 18, 20 songs on it," Urban notes. "They all mean something different, and for me, they just all constituted the record."

Ripcord will be available on May 6. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes.

Keith Urban Opens Up About His New Music

See Keith Urban + More Country Stars Then and Now

More From 101.5 KNUE