R&B star Robin Thicke enjoyed his first Father’s Day as a dad on Sunday. The singer and his wife, actress Paula Patton, welcomed their first child in April, and Thicke says being a parent has been great for his career. He tells E! News, “There’s an energy. And in all selfishness, my writing has never been better. There’s so many new feelings and depths and thoughts and things that I care about and other things that I don’t.” Thicke spent his Father’s Day barbecuing with his dad, actor Alan Thicke, and says a meal together is much better than the gifts he and his brother used to give their father. He recalls, quote, “One year, my brother gave him a bag of corn nuts or something like that. My dad was kind of mad. He was like, ‘You guys gotta step up.'” Robin Thicke spent the first part of 2010 on tour with Alicia Keys. Keys recently announced that she’s expecting a child with producer Swizz Beatz, and Thicke says he’s excited for them. He states, quote, “They are both lovely people. They deserve that. That’s wonderful.”