POP STAR JESSE MCCARTNEY Music, Marriage & My Life as a Dad

THE ‘BEAUTIFUL SOUL’ SINGER IS ALL GROWN UP AND TACKLING HIS BIGGEST ROLE YET: FATHERHOOD

- RACHEL DESANTIS,DENISE CREW

Dad Life "My goal is to travel [on tour] as a family," says McCartney (at home in L.A. on Sept. 16 with Archer, Katie and their dog Bailey). Above: on tour Oct. 7 in Boston.

Jesse McCartney is sitting on the couch of his Los Angeles home when his 5-month-old son Archer James, who up to this point has been nothing but angelic despite an hours-long photo shoot, suddenly gets restless. McCartney’s wife, Katie, hops into action, putting on a musical toy that soothes the tot almost instantly. “When he gets excited or he can’t sleep, I try to bring him over to the piano, and I’ll play some music for him, and he totally goes wide-eyed. You can tell he’s really tuning in,” McCartney, 38, says. “Just three days ago he started smiling at me. I just can’t get enough. I feel so lucky.”

The McCartneys may be the picture of domestic bliss now, but such peace was difficult to imagine on May 7, when Archie was born three months and one day premature. Plunged into an unprecedented uncertainty over the future of their family, the new parents buckled in and took on the challenges together. Now Archie is thriving—and McCartney, a singer-songwriter who seamlessly bridged the gap from child stardom into an adult career, has plenty of experience when it comes to adapting. “I’m sure that there’ll be a lot more trials in fatherhood coming up, but I feel like if I got through that one, I can get through most,” he says.

McCartney’s life in the spotlight began with a Daytime Emmy-nominated turn on