Jamie Foxx: Past pain fuels my music

Jamie Foxx used his personal "pain" as inspiration for his new album.

The musician and actor has released his most heartfelt record to date, Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses. It comes after his fourth album Best Night of My Life in 2010 and this time Jamie gets a lot deeper, having kept note of emotional moments over the years.

"Certain things that happen to me, I log them as food for the art like, 'Oh, I can use that. I got a little pain right now,'" Jamie told ET. "You got that little, 'It didn't work out.' That little thing right there that's burning."

While many were quick to assume some tracks were about rumoured love interest Katie Holmes, Jamie insists the pair are just friends. He also cleared up a photo which showed them holding hands in the studio, noting it was taken out of context and that Katie's former Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek was present at the time to record vocals for a show.

"I guess some knucklehead person who was here hit us with the phone cam," Jamie shrugged. "I guess they are trying to get money for whatever. It's amazing what people will do to sell you out."

Helping him put the finishing touches on his album were his daughters Annalise, five, and Corinne, 20. The older gave her seal of approval on one of the most moving tracks, In Love by Now, and Jamie couldn't be prouder of her instincts.

"She picked that one," he smiled. "After we did it, she said, 'That one right there is the one,' but she dug the whole album. And she said, it's a great album. And that's, if you ask anybody that works with me, they'll say Corinne's taste and what she thinks about things is usually 100 per cent spot on."