Cee Lo Green pays tribute to Robin Williams with new single

Cee Lo Green is using his next album to honor Robin Williams. On Friday, he announced his first solo album in five years, Heart Blanche, due out Nov. 13, and debuted the first single, named for the late star.

“‘Robin Williams’ is a homage to our humanity,” Green said in a statement, “centered [on] the strength it takes to smile in the face of adversity.”

With lyrics like, “I’m afraid of not being able to laugh anymore” and “We don’t know what the next man’s going through/ Wish I could say it in a plainer way/ We don’t know life reminds me of Robin Williams/ We’ve got to laugh the pain away,” Green preaches nonjudgmental understanding. The track also mentions Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Belushi as troubled stars, who “knew us better than we knew ourselves.”

The single debuted on Green’s website with an interactive video, showing the lyrics typed into Google search bars. Watch a teaser below and head to CeeLoGreen.com/RobinWilliams for the full song.