will.i.am insisted he had lunch with Britney Spears every week for three months before working with her.

The '#thatPower' hitmaker was determined to get to know what the blonde singer gets "excited about in life" before he collaborated with her on 2011 track 'Big Fat Bass'.

He said: "I was like, 'OK, look, guys, me and Britney need to have lunch four times a month for three months before I even try to go in the studio with her.

"Because we need to talk. We need to talk about what she's excited about in life. I gotta talk about the things that hurt her. I gotta talk about the things that make her concerned - she's a mother. I gotta talk to her about all the things that her fans want to talk to her about. I gotta be the vehicle between her and her fans."

The Black Eyed Peas frontman - who also collaborated with Britney on his recent single 'Scream and Shout' - will also act as executive producer on the 'Toxic' star's eighth studio album.

He told Rolling Stone magazine: "After I did a song on 'Femme Fatale' - 'Big Fat Bass' - and then we did 'Scream and Shout,' she really liked the way we worked because of my approach.

"So they asked me to be involved in, not producing and writing every song, but to be an executive producer.

"We can't do another song about going on the dance floor. Really? Didn't we see a bunch of Britney doing that already? Don't we want to see something that comes from her heart?"

As well as working with the 31-year-old beauty, will.i.am is planning to go on a solo tour in September, but the American star is set to snub the US because he regards it as a "weird place" to play shows.

He said: "I'll probably be on a real tour in September. But I don't know if I'm gonna tour America. I'll tour everywhere else, but not the States. It's a weird place to tour." "

"It's gonna be cool. [But] I don't want to reveal how I tour."