Kelly Clarkson Changes ‘Piece by Piece’ Lyrics After Divorce

Kelly Clarkson has usually modified lyrics within the wake of her divorce from Brandon Blackstock, and her newest tweaks turned a tribute to her ex right into a self-empowerment anthem.

“This song I initially wrote just super hopeful, right? And well, sometimes hopeful turns into hopeless, so here we go, ‘Piece by Piece,’” Clarkson, 41, instructed her Las Vegas viewers on Saturday, August 5.

“Piece by Piece” was initially a tune about how Blackstock, 46, was completely different from Clarkson’s personal absentee father. “But piece by piece, he collected me up / Off the ground, where you abandoned things, yeah / Piece by piece, he filled the holes that you burned in me / At six years old and you know,” Clarkson sang on the unique tune, which was launched in 2015.

During Saturday’s present, Clarkson modified the above mentions of “he” to “I,” belting, “I collected me up” and “I filled the holes,” making the tune about her personal capacity to choose herself up after heartbreak. Those weren’t the one modifications.

The second a part of the “Piece by Piece” refrain used to reward Blackstock as properly. Instead of proclaiming, “He never walks away / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me,” Clarkson now sings, “I just walk away / when they ask for money / I take care of me / ’cause I love me.”

Money was some extent of rivalry in her divorce from Blackstock, whom Clarkson married in 2013 and break up from in 2020. “[Brandon] will not get one penny from [Kelly] that isn’t ordered by the judge,” a supply instructed Us in January 2022.

Two months later, they finalized their divorce, and Clarkson needed to pay Blackstock $45,601 a month in little one assist (they share custody of daughter River, 8, and son Remington, 6) and $115,000 per 30 days in spousal assist till January 2024. She was additionally ordered to pay a one-time lump sum of $1.3 million as a part of the settlement.

While her refrain used to conclude with “Piece by piece, he restored my faith / That a man can be kind and a father could stay,” Clarkson is her personal religion healer within the 2023 replace. “Piece by piece, I restored my faith / That a heart can still beat, even when it breaks,” she sings in her new model.

In the ultimate verse, Clarkson modifications extra references from “he” to “I,” noting she’ll by no means stroll away or break her kids’s hearts. While the unique included the road, “He’ll take care of things, he’ll love her,” Clarkson now belts, “I’ll take care of things when you leave scars.”

This isn’t the primary time the American Idol alum modified lyrics in reference to her divorce. Clarkson — who launched her first post-divorce album, Chemistry, earlier this yr — modified the phrases whereas singing a canopy of GAYLE‘s “abcdefu” on NBC’s The Kelly Clarkson Show in March. She saved the altered traces and carried out them with out censorship throughout her July 29 Las Vegas present.

“F–k you and your dad and the fact that you got half / and my broken heart / turned that s–t into art,” Clarkson sang.

Sign up for Us Weekly’s free, every day publication and by no means miss breaking information or unique tales about your favourite celebrities, TV exhibits and extra!

Clarkson’s Las Vegas residency on the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood will wrap up on August 19.