It's been three years since we've heard a record from Smokey Robinson, but expect something different from the Motown Legend when he drops his next project. 

Robinson told Billboard that he's working on a "Spanglish" album for his next release. 

"I've been learning Spanish for about four or five years," Robinson said. "I'm writing songs in Spanish now, so it will be a combination Spanish-English record. I'm going to do some traditional Latino songs, but there's a bunch of original stuff, too."

This will Robinson's first album since 2009's "Time Flies When You're Having Fun." The album spent 11 weeks on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and two weeks the Billboard 200 chart.

However, Robinson said that his release won't be anytime soon.

 "I'm just in the embryo stages now, gathering material," Robinson said. "I haven't gone into the studio yet. I've been so busy this year, traveling and performing, I haven't had the time. So I don't know when it's going to happen yet."

This year will be 40 years since  the onetime Motown vice-president's departure from the Miracles, initially as a retirement to focus on his family and corporate duties.

"I had no idea it was 40 years, because it happened overnight," Robinson notes. "Time just happens, and it's going by and I'm not really conscious of how quickly it's going by, because it doesn't seem like that long ago to me." 

Robinson has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame and also received a Kennedy Center Honor. 

"I have been able to be around for all these years, still viable, and I feel like God has sustained me," Robinson said. "People still come out to the concerts and they're packed out all over the world. So I'm just blessed, man, that that's what's happened to me."