NEW YORK - Josh Groban has been teased by family and friends about landing on People magazine's "most beautiful" list but he doesn't mind.

"I always had a really great time flipping through the magazine and making fun of everybody," Groban said with a laugh. "I'm really honoured to be one of those people that I'm sure people will be criticizing."

Being celebrated for his looks is a new concept for Groban, whose new live CD/DVD, "Awake Live," arrived in stores Tuesday.

"For me, the whole beauty and the whole idea of people saying you're beautiful or you're not is not something I generally paid attention to," the 27-year-old multiplatinum singer said. "But I was very, very honoured that they included me in their issue."

He was also "honoured" to be included in the Jimmy Kimmel-Ben Affleck spoof video that had the pair acting like lovers. The YouTube-favourite featured Groban singing at the piano in his typical majestic way - except the lyrics included explicit language.

Groban knows his appearance in the all-star clip may have surprised those who think of him as the clean-cut kid who sings the classically inspired songs and that's good, in his opinion.

"I wanted that to change a little bit," he said with a laugh. "It's definitely my kind of humour, and I thought it would be really fun. . . . I hope soon to do something like that in the future."

Groban said people often think he's as reserved as his music - and that's not the case.

"I've always been the kind of person who has been very serious about my music, and very completely non-serious and completely goofy and crazy about everything else in my life."

These days, he has more time to be goofy. Groban recently ended his long "Awake" tour and is back home in the Los Angeles area, trying to catch up with friends. He's also writing new music, and recently performed with Paul Simon during his shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

"It was such an amazing master class of learning for me, and Paul is one of my heroes. He's been an inspiration to me since I was a kid," he said.

One thing he's not trying to develop in his spare time is a new romantic relationship: Groban said he's happy to be single at the moment.

"I've kind of been going from relationship to relationship," he said. "It's been nice to kind of rediscover myself again and be patient for whatever comes next."