'Long Story Short' Singer Forest Blakk Finds Constant Inspiration in the Eyes of Wife Tooley Jones (Exclusive)

"I found the perfect person that allows me to be unapologetically myself," the musician tells PEOPLE. "I get to be my true and authentic self, and she still loves me"

Forest Blakk never gave much thought to his own mortality until he married Tooley Jones.

"This is the first time in my life where I am actually worried about how long I get to live," Blakk tells PEOPLE in a recent interview. "It's never bugged me. But now, I want to live forever with her. And I realize that's not going to be possible, so I'm just trying to soak up every minute of life with her."

And if that isn’t the most romantic thing ever, we don’t know what is.

"I'm very lucky that I have someone that loves me enough to live with me," continues the "If You Love Her" hitmaker, who just released his latest heartfelt love song "Long Story Short." "I found the perfect person that allows me to be unapologetically myself. I get to be my true and authentic self, and she still loves me."

It’s this love that the acclaimed singer/songwriter seemingly spent his whole lifetime searching for. "It's the first time I've put someone else before me," says Blakk of his relationship with Jones, his wife of less than a year. "I think about her, and I think about what it means to be the best version of myself for her. Now, if that means I must go to the gym and work out and get in better shape and eat better, I will!" He laughs. "I just want to be able to live forever with her."

Related: Singer Forest Blakk Marries Tooley Jones in Intimate Forest Wedding with Caroline Rhea as Officiant (Exclusive)

It's no surprise that Blakk loves love, especially as he didn’t find much of it growing up in Canada with a father who sold him "for 10 grams of cocaine," Blakk told PEOPLE back in 2022.

"I grew up really feeling the lack of [love]," says Blakk, whose grandmother served as his saving grace while growing up. "I mean, I had love. It wasn't like my whole world was empty and I didn't have any love and it was terrible. I had experiences, but I definitely didn't know what love felt like to this degree."

Related: Forest Blakk Opens Up About Tumultuous Childhood: 'My Dad Sold Me for 10 Grams of Cocaine'

So, when the newly anointed ‘patron saint’ of the show Love Is Blind couldn’t feel love, he wrote about it.

"I always would think, 'This is what I think it might be,'" remembers Blakk, who made his music debut via his 2018 EP Minutes. "I really felt hopeless. I felt like a shattered version of myself. And I didn't really know what was out there for me. I literally had this heart full of pieces that I was slowly piecing back together, and I didn't know if I was worthy of love."

But then the acclaimed singer/songwriter met Jones.

"All of a sudden, I actually realized that I was lovable," says Blakk, who moved to Nashville last year. "I didn't believe this to be true. And then, here we are. She came out of her apartment, she walked down the stairs, and my whole world started to come alive. She's my muse."

And while having children might not be in the plans for now, Blakk says he and Jones plan to have "lots of bulldogs" and a home filled with love.

"If love is a coloring book, I'm just the lines," concludes Blakk, who is set to join James Arthur on his Bitter Sweet Love Tour starting April 30. "Tooley is the one that colors it all in and makes it feel special. I'm just hoping that we take our time coloring every page."

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Read the original article on People.