Will.i.am Says U2, Earth, Wind & Fire and Talking Heads Inspired Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’

Will.i.am knows it takes greatness to create greatness. Hence, why he looked to some legendary music acts to inspire one of his biggest career hits.

During a new episode of Nile Rodgers‘ Deep Hidden Meaning — a songwriting show on Apple Music 1 — the Black Eyed Peas hitmaker, 49, detailed the inspiration behind his group's 2009 hit song "I Gotta Feeling."

Apparently, per NME, Will.i.am. originally "wrote the chorus" for rock icons U2 and was also inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire and Talking Heads during the track's creation.

"David Guetta had this song called 'Love Is Gone'... So he sends me the remix and that is the beat to 'I Gotta Feeling,'" he recalled on the episode, which drops in full on Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. BT. "I approached it like, 'OK, if I could approach the chorus, what would Earth, Wind & Fire do? What would U2 do? What would Talking Heads do all at the same time?'"

According to NME, the producer explained that the song's "chorus is like an Earth, Wind & Fire type of vibe, it’s very Maurice White." He also credited the track's famous "woo-hoo" line as being "very Bono, U2." "As a matter of fact, I wrote the chorus for U2 because at the time, I was working on [their 2009 album] No Line on the Horizon at Olympic Studios in the U.K.," Will.i.am added.

"At the time, [U2's] 'Beautiful Day' was like, 'Oh man, if they have another song like "Beautiful Day," that’d be awesome,'" he continued. "And so I did 'I gotta feeling that tonight’s going to be a good night' as a response to that, wrote it from the perspective of Maurice White and then the Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer.' And so that 'Psycho Killer qu’est-ce que c’est?' Let me borrow that. Let me use that math."

Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, where it remained for 14 weeks while spending one full year on the song chart. The song earned a record of the year Grammy nomination the following year, plus an award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

Ahead of "I Gotta Feeling"'s release, Will.i.am told Marie Claire that the song was "dedicated to all the party people out there in the world that want to go out and party." "Mostly every song on the Black Eyed Peas record is painting a picture of our party life," he added of the group's 2009 album, The E.N.D. — which included other hits like "Boom Boom Pow" and "Imma Be."

"It was a conscious decision to make this type of record," the band's frontman continued. "Times are really hard for a lot of people, and you want to give them escape, and you want to make them feel good about life, especially at these low points."