Plain White T's [ tickets ] lead singer Tom Higgenson is about to live his dream. His voice will appear on a Sept. 26 episode of "Sesame Street," where he'll sing a song about the letter "T" to the tune of the band's hit "Hey There Delilah."

"Yeah, hello!" Higgenson said when asked if he's excited. "It's a dream. But it's just my voice. There's going to be some Muppet singing it on the screen."

Three days earlier, the Grammy-nominated band will release its new album, "Big Bad World." The release is the follow-up to the group's platinum-plus-selling breakthrough record, "Every Second Counts." Higgenson explained he named the album "Big Bad World" because of the state of his past and present relationships.

"The first track on the album is 'Big Bad World.' It's the song that embodied what the whole album meant to me," he said. The lyrics include, "It's a big bad dream/Following your heart/Sometimes the one you need/Is the one that tears you apart/So you say goodbye/Kiss her one more time/And cry the whole way home."

Plain White T's--rounded out by guitarist Dave Tirio, bassist Mike Retondo, drummer De'Mar Hamilton and guitarist Tim Lopez--recorded "Big Bad World" at Morning View Studios in Malibu, CA, and Groove Master Studios in Chicago with producer Johnny K. It was mixed by Andy Wallace (Coldplay, Paul McCartney).

"Johnny K, he did our last record. It was nice to see him again. We had fun making the album. It was really chill," said Higgenson, whose band will tour this fall with Panic at the Disco and Dashboard Confessional [ tickets ]..

Recording in Malibu was a great experience, he said. He could take a break and jog on the beach or sit around and play video games.

"You should go [to Malibu] and you'll know exactly why I loved it there," Higgenson said. "It's far enough out of LA to know that we were away from home. I was able to go to LA and do some cool things. It had beautiful weather, beautiful sunsets."

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