Kelly Clarkson Reveals Painful Reason She Almost Scrapped Her First Album In Five Years

With even a successful talk show to her name, Kelly Clarkson has proven that she is far more than just a singer and the first winner of "American Idol." She has released numerous hits since the beginning of her music career and has won three Grammy Awards, but despite all of that, the singer was hesitant to get back into music after the release of her 2017 album, "Meaning of Life". 

The revelation came along with the news she will release her first album in over five years come 2023, as she confirmed to Variety in a September 7 interview. However, it wasn't because she wasn't a fan of the new music or because she felt rushed to appease her fans. Instead, it was because the songs on the album hit a little too close to home for her liking. Of course, in true Clarkson fashion, she was an open book when diving deeper into the painful situation clouding what should have been an exclusively exciting time.

Kelly Clarkson told Variety her untitled new album was inspired by her divorce from Brandon Blackstock, who she split from in June 2020 and shares two young kids.

Clarkson added she hadn't set out to make another album, either, telling Variety, "But then the whole divorce thing happened, and I needed to write it. And then I didn't know if I was going to release it, because you can be very angry in that state of mind." Speaking of feelings, the singer had a lot of them. "When my ex and I first separated, there were many emotions. It was hard," she also told the publication. "My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I was like, 'Remember that time we wrote, like, 25 songs in a week?" However, it wasn't the right time to move forward with the tracks. "Then I told my label, 'I can't talk about this until I've gone through it,' and it's just taken some time to do that." Despite the issues, Clarkson moved forward to achieve a meaningful goal."This record, I think I wrote this for a reason — not just for me, but maybe someone else can benefit from it," she explained.

Outside of the album, Clarkson has moved on in other ways. In March 2022, she changed her legal name to Kelly Brianne, formerly her first and middle names, although she noted that she would remain known as Kelly Clarkson in a professional capacity, per People.