Chris Rene gets mad deep with us in our exclusive video interview.

Remember that one Christmas when you were 8 and Santa brought you that totally radical paint-splattered Huffy bike you wanted? And you were all, "WHOOAAAAAA, is this really happening?" That's basically been Chris Rene's whole life since he took third place on the first season of "The X Factor U.S.A." in 2011. The "Young Homie" singer scored a record contract with Epic after his second runner-up finish, and he's been enjoying the crazy ride ever since.

Watch Chris Rene discuss his upcoming album, staying positive and more in our video interview after the jump.

We sat down with the Santa Cruz singer-songwriter when he stopped by MTV recently, and he opened up about what fans can expect on his upcoming debut album, which artist he'd love to collaborate with most (complete with sound effects!), and staying positive when things get tough. Chris knows a thing or two about hardships -- he's been honest about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction and has been in and out of rehab from a young age. But now that he's close to celebrating a full year sober, Chris is trying to help others realize their full potential: "What I would say to anyone who's having a hard time or struggling is to have faith, and to believe you can achieve something better." Then he spits a Bob Marley song for a second, and that's when we asked to be his girlfriend. JK about that last part. Maybe.

+ Watch Buzzworthy's exclusive video interview with Chris Rene below.