Babyface’s Children are ‘Still Discovering’ His Music (Exclusive)

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds has played a massive role in writing and producing decades’ worth of music’s biggest hits. But the role he’s perhaps most proud of is the one he has at home.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of Uncle Charlie’s R&B Cookout tour, which kicks off on Aug. 27 in Los Angeles, the legendary singer-songwriter — who is father to adult sons Brandon and Dylan and 16-year-old daughter Peyton — revealed that his kids are “still discovering” his work.

“I’m just Dad, not so much Babyface. I’m Babyface to other people sometimes,” Babyface, 67, says. “I don’t know how much they really listen. Brandon, I think, has been listening more recently and telling me that I should do this and do that, do more of this.”

“But I think that initially they’re still discovering me, through other people and through other things,” he adds.

While Babyface has written about fatherhood in the past, specifically on the title track of his 1996 LP The Day, he admits it’s not a topic he often explores in his music. “I’m just the love guy,” he says.

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Later this month, Babyface is bringing the love on the road with him as he joins Charlie Wilson, El DeBarge and K-Ci Hailey on their latest run of shows — which kicks off in Los Angeles and wraps in early October in Memphis. An extended tour with Wilson has always been something Babyface has wanted to do, he says, and he’s excited to “squeeze” in his four-plus decades of impact.

“That is one of the best parts of the show is when I go through the medley of songs that I did for other people,” Babyface says. “It comes with so much more energy and it’s always a surprise for people, because they don’t realize how many songs and how much time that’s [spanned]. So it’s a great walk down memory lane.”

As for how he figures out that portion of his live show — which sometimes features Boyz II Men’s “Water Runs Dry” or Brandy’s “Sittin’ Up In My Room” — it’s “always a task.”

“There’s a whole lot of songs that I leave out that I’ve done for a number of people, but it all just has to blend in together. I don’t touch things that I’ve done, even that I’ve been involved with or producing writing or whatever for Beyoncé, for SZA, for just a number of people. [There are] things that I still don’t put in there, because it just doesn’t roll in right with how the songs come in,” he says.

“So it’s all got to feel right. In order to make it feel right on the stage, it’s got to make sense.”

For more on Babyface, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.