Chris Martin admits to initially feeling unsure about collaborating with BTS

"My Universe" by Coldplay and BTS topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Oct. 9, but Coldplay frontman Chris Martin almost sabotaged the collaboration before it began.

"The message got to me, 'Oh, BTS were wondering if you might have a song for them,'" Martin, 44, told Entertainment Weekly's Alex Suskind. "The little indie side of me was like, 'No [working with] boy bands.' And then I was like, 'Yeah, but that's 1998 you speaking. Like, you really like this band.' The K-pop thing is very different to what we're used to, and it's quite regimented. But within that, these seven boys are really friends and really a band just like we're a band. It's no different."

Suskind noted that Martin traveled to South Korea to work with the K-pop juggernauts on the smash single, which according to Billboard's Gary Trust became Coldplay's second No. 1 on the Hot 100—first since 2008's "Viva La Vida"—and BTS' sixth chart-topper, all since September 2020.

The EW profile also examines Martin's hesitancy to team up with prominent, five-time Grammy-winning pop producer Max Martin: "And then, I was gradually, like, I do really like [Katy Perry's] 'Hot N Cold.' I do like [Taylor Swift's] 'Shake It Off.' I just kept loving and noticing all of the songs he produced or co-wrote."

Martin produced one of the 17 tracks on Everyday Life, Coldplay's eighth studio album that arrived in November 2019, and every track on the band's Music of the Spheres album, out Friday (Oct. 15).

Listen to "My Universe" below.