Kelly Clarkson is sharing why she held back from revealing too much about her personal life on her new album, “Chemistry.”
The 41-year-old singer will release her upcoming record on June 23. “Chemistry” isn’t just special because it marks the musician’s 10th album, the LP will also be Clarkson’s first record since she split from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock in 2022.
While her passionate singles “Mine” and “Me” seemingly pointed to some problems in her marriage, there’s a line she won’t cross. Clarkson told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview that she decided to cut some “too truth-telling” songs from the tracklist.
In an interview published on May 8, the “Miss Independent” singer told the publication that she was “definitely very honest” when she wrote “Chemistry” and that her new music will address what “people are probably expecting,” hinting at her divorce.
She helped pen 40 to 50 songs for “Chemistry,” according to EW, but some tracks were “too truth-telling” to become one of the final 14 songs.
“I know people will hear this record and be like, ‘Oh, damn, she went there!’ and I’m like, ‘No, I promise you I didn’t,’” she said.
But that doesn’t mean she avoided being vulnerable in the songs that did make the album. Her breakup record includes multiple heartbreaking tracks that she expects will make her emotional when she performs them.
“That’s just going to take time — which is annoying. I don’t like that,” she said about being overwhelmed during performances. “I will sing ‘Because of You’ and still remember why I wrote it at 16. It’s hard for me not to tap back in because I feel like it’s my job to emote what the lyrics are.”
She continued, “It took time for me with ‘Piece by Piece,’ with ‘Hazel Eyes.’ It just takes time to... not really separate, but to get to where you can remember it but you don’t drown in it. You dive in, but you’re treading water.”
So, she said she will embrace those tearful onstage moments that will likely come when her 10-night Las Vegas residency begins in July.
“Pain can still feel real fresh when one is still, daily, trying to come out on the other side,” she explained. “I don’t have control over it. But what I do have control over is the fact that I know I don’t have control over it, so it’s fine.”
Clarkson added, “It’s supposed to be what it’s supposed to be. You have to learn to let that go and live in the moment, whatever it is.”
The “Breakaway” singer has spoken candidly about her marriage ending in the past few years. She originally filed for divorce from her ex in June 2020 following nearly seven years of marriage. TODAY.com obtained documents in March 2022 confirming they had reached a settlement. They were granted joint custody of their two children: 8-year-old River Rose and 7-year-old Remington Alexander.
When Clarkson first announced “Chemistry” in March, she said she had been working on it for three years and “wasn’t sure I was going to release it.”
“This album is definitely the arc of an entire relationship,” she said in a Twitter video at the time. “And a whole relationship shouldn’t be just brought down to one thing. So there’s the good, the bad and the ugly kind of thing going on in it.”
In April, she released “Mine,” one of her two lead singles, and performed it on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
At the start of the ballad, she croons, “I hope one day someone will take your heart and hold it tight / Make you feel like you’re invincible deep inside / And right when you think that you’ll try again, they cross a line / And steal your shine like you did mine.”
When she finished belting the track, she told the crowd that the poignant lyrics “are pretty self evident.”
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