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.
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, 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.
7
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.
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.
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.
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.