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Intersections of music and millennialism. Deep dives, asides, and exasperations by Alex (+ his friends): a lifelong musician, audiophile, and editorializer turned fitness instructor, DJ, producer, and sound curator.
I believe Kelly Clarkson winning
American Idol is the only time that the
nation of the United States have been
collectively joined on a single issue.
I think that's the only time in
American history that everyone agreed.
We did agree.
That that was the right thing.
I have to tell you a
story about this song.
Please tell me a story about this song.
I have a nine year old demo
album and this is the first song.
I'm like, should I find it and play
it for the Kelly Clarkson episode?
I call it my demo album, but
it's literally me at nine singing
like 10 covers of It was used
as a demo to like try and get
singing children's record deal.
Oh, you're, I'm so sorry.
I thought you meant I'm singing.
I thought you meant like Kelly's
Street team was like, yo, here's
her . Do you know anybody?
Hey, tenure old gay boy.
Would you, do you know
anywhere in the industry?
I did at I, oh my god.
Okay.
This, there's so much to say.
There's so much.
There's to, so, okay.
So.
Way into Kelly was obviously
American Idol, but I have like a,
I've spoken to her on the phone.
Oh, when?
I have spoken to Kelly Clarkson
on the phone in the year 2005.
And I spoke to her because I,
what my agent at the time from in
Little Rock, Arkansas, her son.
Oh, you tell me a little bit.
You have a Ben Moody connection, right?
My Ben Moody, that's the very one.
Melissa Moody was my agent.
So he, I like got to hang out with him
and like meet him because his mom was
like trying to make me a star so that she
could sort of like profit off my success.
And we went to this competition
called IMTA, which means International
Modeling and Talent Association.
He, we were staying at
this hotel in downtown LA.
This was before I lived there.
And he was there just like seeing his mom
and his mom was introducing him to me.
And I, I don't, I think he just liked me.
I was so jazzed.
I was like very much a 10 year
old being like, this is the
best experience of my life.
I'm going to be a huge star and maybe look
at all these people wanting to talk to me.
And he was like, Oh yeah, man, do you want
to, you want to talk to Kelly Clarkson?
And he called her on the phone and I spoke
to her, she was like, just to be cool.
I was like, you want to
impress me with Kelly?
Okay, I was sort of like, I love you.
I sing your song breakaway.
What did she say?
Do you have any memory?
Dude, it lasted like 30 seconds.
Like she was like, all right, I gotta go.
Like she was so fucking nice.
Like as sweet, nice and darling as she
is, she's still to everybody on her show.
But, uh, I mean, yeah, that was like
the coolest fucking thing in the world
for me and why I will forever love her.
Your very own Drew Carr singing
Breakaway, uh, originally performed
by Kelly Clarkson, originally
written by Avril Lavigne, and Drew,
what year and how old were you?
And this was for your demo, right?
2004?
I was nine.
Nine.
Ready?
Mm hmm.
I can't believe I'm
about to hear Kid Drew.
Get ready, here we go.
This is adorable.
Sing.
Sing.
Drew, you're doing the phonate, you're
doing the, N da da da da, n da da da da.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Sorry, did everyone catch that
little riff as a ten year old?
You just said, I pray.
Oh, I go crazy with these riffs.
I go crazy.
I love him.
I love him.
I love him, too.
I couldn't do this at that age.
There's no way.
I couldn't sing like a pop star.
The out?
is wild.
You, you are belting.
It's just me singing in the
way I heard Celine Dion sing.
It's just an imitation.
Yo, this sounds like Celine.
It's like she taught me how to sing.
Take it home.
I loved the bridge.
I can hear your mouth shape.
It's a lot of, it's not easy.
It is.
It's like, is that you behind
you or is it other people?
It's other people.
It's my backup vocalists.
Oh work.
I heard so much.
I love it.
In a young person's voice, you can
hear so literally the, the like things
that you're pulling from or imitate.
Like I can hear Celine.
I can hear country music.
I can literally hear the way you're like.
to try to get the vowels out the
way that these big singers did.
And it's, it's just like amazing.
Good.
Thank you live for that.
Ben was working with Avril Lavigne and
with Kelly Clarkson, which is absolutely
hilarious considering they're like
kind of torrid past with each other.
Um, the sort of the snub at the Grammys.
Avril and Kelly.
Torrid past.
Remember whenever Kelly, Kelly
was still on American Idol
and like tried to hug her.
I think maybe she had just won.
And Avril like didn't.
She tried to hug her and Avril like
lifts up her arm and walks underneath it.
Like this is her hug.
I mean, they're fine.
Like they've been she's been on
her show here on a Grammy Sunday.
We're I know That album did so well and
was like so critically well received.
I think I think Five song or five single
pop albums, which I think that whole thing
started with Michael Jackson's thriller
Which I think was only nine songs and five
of them were released as very commercially
successful singles And I think think
that I don't know if that lingers in the
industry these days because I don't even
think they put money behind five songs.
But I think Dua actually got there.
Well, is anybody even
making an album these days?
No.
Are there even five good songs
on some of these pop albums?
Right.
And it's, yeah.
But Kelly got there with, cause
Breakaway was the first single.
Then Since You've Been Gone
was second, I think, or maybe
it was the other way around.
Then Behind These Hazel Eyes,
which was when I started listening.
I was like, This is amazing.
Like what is this crazy because
of you and then walk away.
So she got walk away That changed my life
musically walk away which one I really
walk away for some reason I was I remember
listening to that and being like this
is like she's doing something brand new.
It's so cool for me I was like there
i've never heard a song like this.
It was so I don't know what it was,
but fuck, I loved that song so much.
Can I play you, we're gonna have to be
careful with anything that's not live
with Kelly because she's big enough
that they will pull stuff down, but
actually I got, whoever I do that to us.
Um, recently and I was
very worried about it.
I can't remember.
Um, it was Beyonce.
They didn't pull anything down.
So I, they were like, Oh, he's,
Cause they know we're, they know
we're paying respect and we're
speaking intelligently about music.
They also have scanners for gay voice.
And if gays are talking about
them, they leave them alone.
Like, Oh, leave it up.
Leave it up.
Yeah.
Leave it up.
Like that aspirin S leave it up.
They're like, mmm, they're sort
of whistling when they talk.
Leave that one out.
That one's contributing to
culture, not detracting.
Yeah.
Um, I want to play, uh, a live
version of Walk Away from I
think the 2020, 2019, 2017.
What was that called?
It was like her Rita Franklin
album, Meaning of Life.
When she Was out of her American
Idol record deal, which took her
seven or eight or nine albums.
And on that tour, she got like horns,
she got like a nice fat budget and
like horns and background singers
and like the Aretha treatment.
And then the covers, well not covers,
the older songs in her catalog that she
brought back, the arrangements were just
like Fire and Walk Away was one of them.
This is on the Today Show,
which is famously at like 7am.
I'll play a little
beginning, middle, and end.
Yes!
Wow.
I still get chills with this.
Like, what is she, what's she put in this?
All right, so this is the vibe
I'm just gonna skip to the end
At 7 a.
m.
Okay, so that was a lot of that but that
arrangement still to this day there's so
much energy the really yummy the crowd
is People are like in that with her.
Yeah, it's a good want to see
her live That's something I've
never done and I feel badly.
Oh, really?
Interesting.
Never seen her live.
I would love to have gone
to her Vegas residency.
She's doing more.
She just announced another weekend.
I think there'll be more.
Oh, We should go.
Tell Adele to go.
We should go.
I would love to go.
Birthday trip?
It in April, it's wait a minute, you
know, who has our birthday, but two days
away, Kelly Clarkson, is she the 22nd?
Yes.
And I heard the 24th it's Taurus queen.
She's Taurus queen.
Kelly is like my diva.
Like my friend, Brett has done this
exercise with me and like rooms,
rooms full of people many times
where he's like, who's your diva?
Not the person that you.
Love or whatever but the person that
you actually feel as a gay person
or as a queer person that your life
is kind of Inside of like whether
it's the voice the storytelling that
the persona like who is it for you?
And it took me a really long time, but
I think it's Kelly for me I just love
that she's I love that all to the earth
real ass singer real real real singer
but I was thinking of like should we
do like a chronology of her career
and then I was like I think people
actually know Kelly's career pretty
well, especially because she's so Public
now like she's had such a third big
chapter in a way that I don't think we
need to like go through it But do you
have you have a favorite Kelly chapter?
and then whether it's that or not,
do you have hidden gem tracks or
moments that you feel are like
that drew parts of Kelly's career.
I think my, my chapter of Kelly
that it like, I am a, I am a
first chapter, like prologue girl.
I love her, like Miss Independent was
the song that I wanted to listen to.
Every single moment of the day, but was
a little too afraid to admit that because
I thought people would know I was gay.
Um, as if that was what was telling them.
Our fears as young people, I do.
We put our fears into certain things.
So, I was obsessed with that song.
Learning later that it was written by
Christina Aguilera was pretty sick.
I was like, that actually
makes so much sense.
Right?
Isn't that insane?
All these initial songs were written
by other incredible girls of the time.
Which, I think, informs
her ability to make.
covers so well, brilliantly, like
makes so much sense that she can
take anybody's music and sing it
better than they can and make it a
version that is singular from theirs.
Because I think the beginnings of
her career were like listening to
these really successful artists
like Avril Lavigne, like Christina
Aguilera, and I'm sure many others
and saying, Oh, how can I sing this?
Make it my own.
Cause people have definitely
heard this demo and we'll hear,
hear this demo at some point.
And I think it's like,
why she's so good at that.
Um, but I mean, the breakaway album is
like that chain musically changed my life.
I think I also sang a lot
of stuff from that as a kid.
It really did.
Like I, it was like electric.
And I think.
Did something that no one expected
her to do which was like be
like critically successful 100%!
No one at that time
thought she would do that.
Um, I want to play you a bit just on the
Miss Independent train I wanted to play
you an award show performance of this.
This is from 2017 AMA's So same
as the last song same as the
walk away from her same era.
It's like her Aretha era Bringing
old songs back with soul.
Those horns.
She flubs the words I think
Help to fear, I love it.
Yeah, she's like, whatever.
The gays will notice.
Like, I forgot about it.
I forgot.
Come
on, Echo.
Right?
This is the slightest bit stodgy, but
it was there.
I still love it.
Like I love even like from
then till now she's sounding
better now She she's an icon.
She really is and she's only aged
like like wine Like it's just
only getting better and vocally.
She's so much better now, which
like Who the fuck is doing that?
Like, how is she doing that?
I know.
I wanted to talk to you about that, too.
She's got money.
The fact that her belt is like bigger
and broader than it's ever been,
and her range is somehow wider.
It's so rare.
And for it to not have diminished,
it's been over 20 years.
That is so rare.
I think she's talked about this on
some podcasts that I've listened to
where she's like, Oh, I, I finally
like learned how to be a vocal
technician as opposed to just somebody
who had this really natural ability.
So, like, she's obviously, like, had
voice lessons and had people teach her
the ways to sustain this when she's
doing a residency or she's on tour.
She's doing a ton of live performances,
and I think now, she's done it
long enough and has, like, built
up the stamina enough to be able
to do it at 7am for the Today Show.
Also, that's the same key!
That's the original key!
That's crazy.
That's high.
That is a high key, everyone.
But also, you know, I think kids,
having kids has a lot to do with it.
Like that really changes hormonally.
Your voice changes the way you sound.
And I think makes most women sound
even better than they did before.
I've heard a lot of, I would
say the same for Beyonce.
Totally.
I've heard a lot of female
artists talk about this.
Yeah, that like, right in the midst
of the pregnancy your voice changes
and then after it like can potentially
grow in this crazy way that would
have never been able to be the case
before, which is so interesting.
And I know a handful of women who've in
the middle of being pregnant have said
like, I've never have sounded better in
my life like there it's just unbelievable.
And I'm like, Oh, they're
like, it makes sense.
You know, like these hormones
are, are going, uh, yeah, yeah.
And it's just, it's really interesting.
And then afterwards, like it's even
a little bit more different and
richer and fuller and more beautiful.
And yeah, I think it's like amazing
to hear her say her old stuff now.
She's got such a husky voice that
if you listen to even some of her
earliest, like maybe we'll play a
couple of her thankful recordings.
She, she was a rangy kind of
R& B mixed with like Aretha
cover artist at that time.
And then the pop rock
thing really took off.
But there were, there were a couple
of, whether they were live recordings
or, or just CD recordings and that.
If I were the listener I am now, then
I would have been like, Oh, I don't
know if she'll be able to sustain that.
Like she's, she's in the Mariah Carey
camp of just like kind of shouting.
I mean, she has a big voice,
but she was really, she wasn't
doing it as sustainably.
And to, for her to have like,
not righted the course, but like
found a way to make it work.
And she can still sing
her ass off any day.
She's like, she doesn't cancel.
This is not a woman that cancels shows.
I've seen her.
I've seen her maybe two or three times
and her quality will, will change like,
and she'll even say if it's a good day or
not a great day or like if she has to do
something differently, but it's never bad.
It's never, ever, ever bad.
Her voice doesn't break.
It just does different things.
You never worry about her.
Let's bring it back to bring
that worry about miss Kelly.
So this was when her first album
thankful She was in the studio with
babyface like that's who she was writing
these songs with that's so iconic.
Oh Wow, so this is just a really
belty live version of this She
just felt her belt that day.
She's sprouts, but she
has it It's like that.
It's like before she knew exactly
what to do with that big ol sound
Like, she just could do that.
And I think it probably got to a
point where she was like, It's not
really doing that as well anymore.
I need to figure out how to
Where it, like, kind of hurts?
Like, am I bleeding?
Yeah, she's like, Hmm, that feels gross.
What note is that?
Sing, Kelly.
Loud and high, girl, you know I love it.
Me too, loud and high.
That's all you need to do.
Actually, the name of this podcast, if
it's me, you should do loud and high.
Trademark.
Loud and high.
Trademark.
Yeah, yeah, fuck yeah.
Alright, maybe I'll buy that.
That's all I need.
But you can hear, it's like, I'm picturing
the feeling in her throat as like, knives
rubbing against each other a little bit.
That's, that one was Oh, absolutely.
They're in flames.
They're bright red.
For sure.
The poor thing.
I mean, hey, she hasn't lost it.
Do you have any moments of My
December that connect or what's
your take on My December?
I love it.
It, to me, sounds less expensive
because they didn't like what she
was doing, so they didn't fund it.
So the vocal mixing is not as nice,
the production is not as nice, but
I think there are some gems on it.
I have to put the context in that
I was a child and I was a fickle
little kid learning about the world.
So I heard Never Again.
Did not like it and I turned my back
on Kelly for a little while I did.
I won't deny that I
did not like the album.
Um, I Was growing in my sophistication
with music to where I was expecting her
next album to sound Exactly like the
other one or to be similar yeah to be
similar enough where I still felt like
I knew her as an artist and I think I
didn't know what, like, taking risks as
a musician was at that time, so I really
was like, What the fuck is she doing?
And like, did not participate
in the conversation.
She obviously won me back.
I have to say I was, I was
not in My December Girl.
And I do forget sometimes the four
years between us, that would have
been pretty substantial back then.
I was 17, you were 13.
You were expecting a
different Kelly in that album.
I was actually all right.
I was feeling very angsty.
I was really loving dark hair, angry.
Yeah, I wasn't a scene kid,
so it wasn't really for me.
I feel I mean, I wasn't either, I'll never
be really, but I like, pretended I was.
I lived through this.
Right, right, right, right.
But never again, like Like, now I love it.
It's so iconic, just the
way that shit starts.
My, uh, my favorite moment of this
album is a song called One Minute.
I don't know if anyone knows this song.
I don't, I have a couple that I
bookmarked as I don't know why Kelly
Clarkson didn't make these a single.
I don't, it's probably she couldn't
like she didn't have the choice in
the matter, but One Minute to me
is a single we all missed out on.
This is the second track on My December.
You're going crazy Running on empty You
can't pick up your mind It's your life
I really, yeah, I like it.
I live.
I need to give that whole album
a full listen through soon.
There's some good stuff.
I think I'll love it now.
And Sober is a song she still performs.
You probably know this one.
I know Sober.
It's a belty ballad.
Beautiful.
This album had the like the
first three second effect.
Each song just grabs you.
Like, this would hit today.
If she released this today,
this would go platinum, I think.
It would, it would be on
the radio, absolutely.
If Olivia Rodrigo can write a song like
this, she will, she will do her best.
And then she said, oh,
do you like this octave?
Or should, should I try a different one?
Hmm.
That was like an album of addicted,
like that is like what My December was.
100%.
It was her Evanescence album.
It was her Jagged Little Pill.
It really was.
It was like 20 addicted.
Um, I would like to plug a track I
forgot about from My December, which
features the only, in my understanding,
the only pop song that shifts
the key down in the final chorus.
And it's called Yeah.
Oh, it's like I Am
Changing from Dreamgirls.
Oh, does that shift down?
Alright, well this is, yeah.
I'm already playing Tony Hawk.
Like, the scene is set.
I'm looking.
The boy's in big shorts.
Absolutely.
We're on a basketball court.
Fringe, fray hair.
Over the eyes.
Absolutely.
Ashley Parker Angel is somewhere.
That's the chorus.
What's your plan, Kel?
Fascinating choice there.
Not sure it's the right
one, but I like it.
Trying to think now.
I think one of my favorite
Hidden Gems tracks, was it on
the I Do Not Hook Up album?
Is that the name of that album?
No, that name of that album is, I
call this her Katy Perry Comeback
to Pop album because Katy Perry
wrote a bunch of those songs.
That one was called My
Life Would Suck With that.
All I ever wanted news on
that all I ever wanted.
Yeah, all I ever wanted.
Um, the song Secret Cry on that.
Oh, good choice.
I love Cry.
She was kind of pushing into
country a little with this one.
So this is fourth album, Kelly, after she.
Got my December out of her system
and she agreed to like play the
industry game again And she was
like, okay, I'll be a pop girlie.
And I guess I was loving it Welcome
back back to what you should be doing.
I Was so excited when this album came out
cuz I was like, oh, this is looking more
like her cuz I was you know Still growing.
Yeah, like they bleached
her hair is what that meant
Yeah at Olivia put this in your
next tour It's just like orchestral
and it feels really theatrical and
yummy, but like a pop song still.
Oh, that's such a good ballad.
Which is my fucking cream.
Also, I wrote this album off for
probably compatible reasons to
why you were into it, which was,
I was like, Oh, she's back to pop.
I'm not going to be into this, but
there's, there's a couple of pop singles.
It's kind of like the Taylor Swift red.
It's like, there's three pop singles.
And then there's a lot
of like the other genre.
And so there's a lot of pop rock on this.
The one that I love is.
Don't let me stop you.
I don't know if you know this one.
This one, hell yeah.
Hits, bitch.
Where was the single from it?
This one makes me think
of a Paramore song.
Yes, Paramore, Kelly.
This is so 2009.
It's got a little Fall Out Boy in it.
It really does.
Sort of some Panic!
at the Disco there.
Panic!
It's so 2009.
Like, that is of the time.
Thing, Kelly.
I couldn't help but notice the last time
you kissed me, you kept both eyes open.
Girl, that means you did too.
Bruh.
Just saying.
Not to read you, girl.
Right.
That means you're not
to read me too, Kelly.
How'd you know?
Never talked to you.
I have to say, that was reminding me of,
feels like a precursor to Red, in a way.
Like, that had a really,
Taylor Swift sound to me.
Cause when did Red come out?
Like 2011 or something?
2012.
2012.
So this 2012.
Okay.
This pop rock format of like the,
just before the 2010s, Kelly was
definitely paving it, and then I
think all the pop rock that ended up
happening this And getting no credit.
I feel she was getting no credit.
Kelly has never gotten
credit for anything.
This is like the story of her career.
She's never credited for anything.
It's such bullshit.
She's literally one of the
greatest vocalists of the
generation and of all time.
I will fight anybody on that.
And we want to disrespect her?
What the fuck?
She gets removed from the
story and the lore of the parts
of culture that she has had.
Either a huge thumbprint on or she
has just like she's the queen of
herself in her own right for some
reason She's like out of them.
We know she's there and we like
celebrate her but I cultured We will
never properly give Kelly her flowers.
Like I don't know why
and it's really fucked.
It's really fucked She is a purveyor
and creator of culture especially
for those of us who grew up in the
late 90s early aughts like we she
ushered us into the new millennium and
Completely and out of like bubblegum pop.
Safely and with good music.
With good music.
Who else could say?
There's very few others
that could say that, okay?
Put some fucking respect on her name.
You know how she got some
disrespect on this album?
Uh, she released Already Gone with Ryan
Tedder which was like his Photocopy
of Halo that he wrote for Beyonce and
unfortunately, Kelly's came out second
and so people shit on her and it's like
well It's the same guy that wrote Bull.
It's not her fault, but
like already gone slaps.
This is a great ballad Oh, this is another
one of my damn shower songs back then.
I'm sorry, but this is better than
Halo I'm sorry y'all this is my
choice Those are really strong words.
Halo doesn't need me to celebrate it.
It's very celebratory.
It's fine.
Yeah, she's fine.
Already gone needs me.
You've got a few billion streams.
She's fine.
I haven't
listened to this in years.
You know what this song doesn't have,
and what Halo also doesn't have?
Is a key change.
It kind of asks for one, that last chorus.
It does.
This should lift.
And if you're Kelly, it
should lift a whole step.
A whole octave, damn.
It's so like, I think we've talked
about this in our last, like,
it's real, I'm itching for it.
And it has like that.
We talked about this last time.
Like it has that, like the fray
quality of like, really it like
exists in this space and it by the
end is boring because it goes nowhere.
Like there's no trajectory to it.
It's like that did this.
Like yeah, and it was like great for
the final credits of a Grey's Anatomy
episode, but it like isn't actually
very interesting music Well, the
final credits of a Grey's Anatomy
episode was a genre of music for like
10 years That's completely accurate.
Yeah, like every artist and people made
their careers being like this would
be really good on a Grey's episode
Do you have, what would your
three questions be that you would
want Kelly to like follow up on?
I want to know why did you modulate down?
First of all, I want to know, why didn't
you make another sound like walk away?
And do you remember the phone call?
Those are your three.
What are your three for
my, for our girl Kelly?
One of them is definitely the
modulation down and yeah, on my December
and like whose decision that was.
One of them is one of my hidden gems.
I desperately need to know why
this was never made a single.
It was from a very successful album.
The.
second most successful album she's
released, which was stronger.
And I think stronger was maybe another
five, maybe, no, I think it was a
three or four single album, but I
think that Kelly had, I think that
Kelly had a fifth single on this album
and I need to know I've heard her.
Sing this live, not I wasn't there for it,
but I've seen recordings of it, and she
has talked about writing this, but she has
never explained why this wasn't a single.
To me, this is the older sister to, um,
Behind These Hazel Eyes, and it is a
song called Let Me Down, and I have never
heard a perfect punk pop song like this.
Ever before or since, um, this
is a little of Let Me Down.
This is literally my
favorite Kelly Clarkson song.
I love this song.
It's album like, or it's like,
song like 16 on this album.
It's buried.
I don't know why.
A lot of tracks on that album, damn.
I think I might be a fortune teller.
I read your face just like a letter.
The funny thing about forever is it
comes with a side of never never.
Leave me, I love to close my eyes.
There's Alicia Keys in the back.
That really made me think of her.
Empire state of mind, in the back.
Really did.
And she gives a great note in the end.
Mm, right on an E.
Her back vocals in that one, it's
like, no one does it like her.
No one does that like her.
And this is when the Husky Belt was
really taking over for her, like she was
becoming much more of a Husky singer.
track.
And like, I just want to know why
that track didn't get a life cycle.
That would have been so successful.
The songs that were released
from that album were Mr.
Know It All, which is
kind of a strange one.
And then Stronger.
And Dark Side.
And then the fourth and final.
Single was the country ballad.
Don't you want to stay with Jason Aldean?
God, that had a chokehold on me.
Don't you want to stay?
Yeah.
Speak on it.
I fuck with that song.
Speak on it.
I think I'd always just
wanted her to lean into that.
I can't wait for the country album.
I can't wait.
It's, like, I, country music,
like, truly did raise me.
So, like, for her to do this with Jason
Aldean at the time was Like, a king.
And, ugh, God, it's good.
Let's take a moment and
talk about Country Kelly.
Because, this is the first time
she really properly recorded,
like, a country song like this.
She just lets her voice, like, speak for
itself, really, in an interesting way.
That's a beautiful way to say it.
I love how you said that.
Thanks.
She just sings with her voice.
It just leads.
You're right, the voice leads.
Like, I think she trusts her
voice the most in music like this.
And that's why it's so beautiful.
I agree with that.
It's just so her.
It sounds like her.
It's so natural.
Have you heard her cover of Garth
Brooks The Dance when he got
inducted into the Kennedy Center?
It makes me cry.
It makes me cry.
I can't watch it.
It's just too Oh really?
Can I play a second of it?
makes me cry.
Yes, you can.
This, um, this was the Kennedy Center
post Covid and so they're all outside
and there's not that many people, but I
remember still in lockdown this came out
and I sat at my house and wept to this.
And I, I didn't have a relationship with
this song like I think most people did.
I didn't even really know this song, so
that, that's a huge blind side for me.
But like Looking back on the memory of the
dance we shared beneath the stars above.
For a moment, all the world was right.
How could I have known,
that you'd ever say goodbye.
This is pitch perfect.
And now, I'm glad I met you.
Immediate chills, my god.
The way it all, the way,
that I left your chest.
I could have missed the
pain, but I had to miss.
Like, this arrangement is crazy.
It's perfect.
That is a perfect arrangement.
It's so beautiful.
That is a perfect vocal performance.
Sorry!
I wonder if she won a Grammy for that.
Because I think sometimes they can.
It was so, so good.
Garth and Trisha are both crying.
Crying, yeah.
It's just so wild.
Like, God.
And that's a nut, like, when she did
With Trisha and Reba, the, for her
Christmas album, like that as well.
Oh, I don't know that one.
Um, was it Oh Holy Night?
Silent Night.
Oh my gosh, I've never heard this.
It's beautiful.
Oh, I already love it.
I love Trisha Yearwood's voice too.
Kelly loves Trisha.
She sings her praises
at every opportunity.
Kelly went on record and said that
recording this album was her favorite
project to date when she had released it.
Cause she was like, they
finally let me start.
Sing and like creative direct.
I had never been given any power
And she needs to be given it more
because this album is perfect.
Look what comes of it.
Yeah Trisha is that that's not real.
I think that's trisha Yeah I need to
listen to trisha yearwood She's beautiful.
Her voice, beautiful music.
And then Reba comes in
with her Reba, naturally.
Oh, let's just give it.
Shalove.
Reba has entered the chat,
ladies and gentlemen.
An icon.
An icon.
One of the best to ever do it.
Kelly handed her seat on the bus
to Reba when she moved to New York.
She gave it to Reba.
She said, you can have it.
The grandmother of her children.
Oh my god, right.
Oh, that's right.
She and Reba both suffered at the hands
of The same fucking family of men.
Speaking of Kelly Country, when Kelly
had just started her, uh, television
show, which started in the pandemic,
and I was watching it because there was
nothing to do, and like, even if there
was, I'd watch it, so I don't know why
I said that, but, um, she talked a lot
about wanting to do like a supergroup
album, specifically for the Country album.
Oh, yeah, I wanted to
talk about this note.
She, she was asked at the time, she, I
think was in the process of making, or
no, she had made meaning of life and she
had made the like Aretha soul pop album.
And then everyone was like.
is country next like we've been waiting
your whole career for it and she kept
saying I don't know I don't know and
she's still to this day it's 2024 we
don't have a country album from her yet
she would say I think an interesting way
to do it would be with a group of other
women and she referenced other people
that had done it in the past what ended
up happening was so heartbreaking which
is the high women came together the exact
thing that Kelly is talking about happened
and they didn't invite her or she wasn't
in it I don't know what the story is
but Maren Brandy And I can't remember.
I think Amanda Shire.
Yeah, and the other two.
And the other two.
I'm sorry, y'all.
I listen to that album
a lot, but like, Me too.
It was within a year that
that album had happened.
And I was like, Did y'all hear
Kelly say she wanted to do this?
Because this would have been
so much bigger if you had
let her do this with you.
And it's interesting because they've,
they have some other artists that
they feature on some of their tracks,
like one of them being Yola, who
everybody please get into Yola.
She's unbelievable, incredible artist, but
she's He is very much like folky country.
Um, she has two albums out there.
Spectacular.
But I w I'm once I read that, I was like,
I'm, I'm curious why they didn't at least
ask her to be on a track with them, right?
They have features.
Oh, it's Natalie Hemby
is the, is the fourth.
Oh yeah, yeah.
And like, it's just.
It's so sad to me that I don't know
why Kelly's name doesn't come up for
this, maybe nowadays it would, but
like, I'm sorry, but the Maren song,
Old Soul on High Women, I mean, Maren's
never done anything I hadn't liked.
I love the Maren leads on the High Women.
This is one of my favorite songs.
He writes an incredible
melody, just delicious.
And then the like, super country
one that she wrote, Loose Change.
Do you know this song?
Love it.
Ugh.
Yes.
I'mma be rolling out of your
pocket like Loose Change.
Yeah.
But I'mma be someone's
lucky penny someday.
She's a genius.
This is to me like a Dolly Parton song.
A hundred percent.
It has that like bouncy, 60s quality.
Kacey Musgraves has made music that sound
like this on her first couple albums.
Yes.
It kind of sounds like Follow Your Arrow.
Oh, God, how I love that song.
This line.
Period.
I'm sorry, give her Brilliant.
What award is available
to be given for that?
Give her a Mark Twain prize.
Exactly, she needs to get to the Academy.
Mark Twain prize.
Okay, the one final hidden track that
I really love in Kelly's discography
is from an album that I did see her
tour, but I didn't see her tour it
because I, like, loved this album.
Um, it's a song called Good Goes
the Bye, which was the last song
on Piece by Piece, which was an
otherwise total missable album for me.
I'm already loving it.
Mmm.
I really like production elements
like this when it feels like
sort of a feature on the song,
like another artist on the song.
Yeah, that's a good way to say it.
I really like this.
Why is this making me think like
it's 2001 and this should be in
like a Princess Diaries credit?
Is Kelly Clarkson, like, the best
credits writer we've ever had?
She could be.
She should be and she could be.
We need more of that.
We do.
I want her to win an Oscar
for best original song.
I really want that for her.
Yeah, why can't she?
She definitely could.
She can, I just need
people to give her the job.
She could get the next Bond song.
It would need to be something
like the Garth Brooks cover.
It needs to be something like that
beautiful because it needs to showcase
like her talent which is being
like an insanely gifted vocalist.
And as you said she's a master
interpreter so I think it
actually could even be a cover.
Like Her skill is almost giving
people the contrast of here's what
I heard and here's what you maybe
know now I'm gonna interpret it.
She has put out there that now that she's
in New York that she wan I think she's
already doing something with Broadway.
Do you know anything about that?
Is anyone talking about that?
She's working.
She's writing a musical.
I mean, I think Yes!
Yes!
I think it would be I'm so
curious to know more about it.
I think if there's some pop girly I want
writing a musical, it's Kelly Clarkson.
I'd be curious to know if it's
like all original stuff, if
there's like some jukebox elements
of like songs she's released.
Sort of like the Alicia Keys musical
that's about to come to Broadway.
Everybody please.
Or The Atlanta's amazing.
Um, drew, thank you for
coming back by Popular Demand.
for having me!
This is so fun.
And we've already come up with three more
topics in the course of today's episode,
so I can't wait to have you back again.
Back, back, back again!
To play us out is what I hope I have
found to be my favorite live recording of
Behind These Hazel Eyes, when I believe
Kelly raises the key for unknown reasons?
Because she went crazy.
It's 7am, it's another morning show.
Seems like just yesterday you were up.
I used to stand so tall.
I used to be so strong Now I can't
breathe No, I can't sleep I'm
barely This guitar, oh, yeah Yeah,
it's like out of tune I don't know
Powerful.
There's our girl.
Till next time, y'all.
See ya.
Love y'all.