It's been almost three years since Dustin Lynch released his sophomore album, Where It's At, but the singer-songwriter promises the wait for his third record will be worth it in the end. After revealing last year that his next set of tunes was nearing completion, Lynch now says that the new disc will likely be released in 2017.

"We’ve done something different with this album -- maybe it’s taken longer because of this, or just because I’ve been touring a lot more, but I wanted to record this album with some new blood," Lynch recently revealed to The Boot and other reporters. "How I went about that is, I would have a group of songs and some favorite producers of mine, and [I would] see what songs those producers were excited about, passionate about ... instead of just going about a record like, ‘Hey, here’s 12 songs. Let’s go get it done.'

"It kind of happened in little patches, and that allowed us to really hone in, being patient," Lynch adds. "It's been almost three years now, to write and really write towards what I know we need. So I think that’s why I’ve been patient with it. But it’s been a good thing. We take our time and, I think, for sure, I know for a fact, it’s my best work so far."

Lynch says most of his third record was ready months ago, but he's been waiting until he found the final songs to complete the project.

"I think the album probably could have been finished a little quicker if I could have found or written a couple songs that I finally got this spring," the Tennessee native reveals. "I’ve been trying to write this certain thing for three years, and it’s been driving me crazy that I haven’t knocked it out of the park yet, and I think we finally got a couple of those."

Lynch hints that his new project will have some similarity to both his self-titled freshman record and Where It's At, but it will also show his growth as both an artist and as a songwriter, thanks in large part to the artists he got to tour with in 2016.

"It’s evolved because I’m getting better as far as kind of knowing what my brand is, what I want to do live. And it’s evolved because I was out with Luke Bryan and Little Big Town [on Bryan's Kill the Lights Tour], and then Chris Young and Florida Georgia Line," Lynch explains. "Especially with Luke and LBT, we were out for so long last year, I was bouncing songs [off of them]. I can remember when I played a couple new titles that had been on the record and just seeing those guys and girls flip out. It was the same type of night that Little Big Town played us the "Better Man" demo on Luke’s bus; that was the first time they had played that song for anybody. That’s a pretty cool thing to do.

"Just to get a thumbs up from them -- to play them a lot of songs, and they go, ‘That’s cool,' and then the following week, you play one, they flip out, want to hear it 10 times. It’s like, ‘Okay, this one has something special to it,'" Lynch continues. "So I think that’s how it’s evolved: I’ve had a lot of great ears and a lot of people I look up to give me a thumbs up on the things I recorded."

After three years of working on his third record, Lynch says he is finally able to relax and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

"I can kind of take a breath now," he shares. "This past year, I’ve been so consumed with this album that I really had kind of pushed everything in my life away. So it’s going to be good to kind of just take a breath for a few months, and go, ‘Oh, this is what sunshine is.’"

Lynch's debut single from his third album, "Seein' Red," became his fourth No. 1 hit. The second single from the record, "Small Town Boy," is currently in the Top 20. Lynch is spending the summer on the road with Brad Paisley, on Paisley's Weekend Warrior Tour.

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