Clarkson’s upcoming single is a lyrical response to 2015’s “Piece by Piece,” written about her relationship with Blackstock as husband and co-parent.
With her new single, Kelly Clarkson recalls a love song that is popular with fans.
On Thursday, the Grammy winner shared a sneak peek of her upcoming single “Me” on Instagram, including lyrics that seem to be a direct response to her 2015 love song “Piece by Piece,” which she wrote about her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock.
“I don’t need nobody to hold me down / I don’t need nobody to love me / I don’t need nobody to pick up these pieces,” Clarkson, 40, sang in the a cappella clip. “I put my broken self back together / I’m letting go of the pain that I’ve been carrying inside / I don’t need nobody / When I’ve got myself.”
The confident lyrics are reminiscent of the chorus of “Piece by Piece,” a song in which the then-husband Blackstock (46) is praised for showing Clarkson and her children so much affection and care that the American Idol Alum received nothing from her own father.
Related:Kelly Clarkson takes a good break with the text “Someone will show you how to use a heart”
“Little by little he picked me up / From the ground where you left things / Little by little he filled the holes / That you burned in me when I was 6,” she sings in the 2015 song, referring to the age she was when her parents divorced. “And you know, he never leaves / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me / Little by little he restored my faith / That a man can be kind and a father can stay.”
The singer-songwriter explained what “Piece by Piece” means, which was released on her album of the same name, in a 2015 interview with The Huffington Post. “I don’t think I realized the gravity of the situation until I had a child of my own and experienced daily love like I experience with Brandon,” Clarkson said, referring to her first child, 8-year-old daughter River Rose.
“I guess you don’t know something is missing until you feel it. I can’t imagine leaving my little girl. I can’t imagine not having that love anymore,” she continued. “I didn’t know it was missing because I never had it. It was a revelation and that’s why I wrote this song. I think a lot of people go through that.”
Related:Kelly Clarkson presents her new album “Chemistry”: “The arc of an entire relationship”
In another interview with the News Corp Australia Network that same year, Clarkson described the song as “the next chapter” of 2004’s “Because of You”, which deals with the emotional strain of her parents’ divorce.
“My sister and I can’t believe we both have such amazing, loving and supportive men,” she said at the time. “We didn’t grow up with that. We never had anything like that in our lives. ‘Piece By Piece’ is about that process. I didn’t have that foundation, but I found it anyway.”
“It’s like the next chapter of ‘Because of You.’ When you work through that, you find love and the kind of happiness you were hoping for but didn’t know was possible,” Clarkson continued. “It’s a happy song. And it has a happy ending, unlike ‘Because of You.'”
Related:Kelly Clarkson says divorce from Brandon Blackstock was “not an overnight decision”: “It tears you apart”
“Piece By Piece” landed in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 after emotional performance on American Idolwhile the “Miss Independent” actress was pregnant with her second child, Remington Alexander, 6.
After nearly seven years of marriage, Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in 2020. She is currently releasing her new album Chemistrywhich she describes as a chronicle of the “arc of an entire relationship” – “the good, the bad, the ugly.”
“Me” will be released on April 14th along with another single called “Mine,” which she announced earlier this week via Instagram and whose lyrics revealed: “Someone’s gonna show you how to use a heart / Like you used mine.”
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