Kelly Clarkson Changes Lyrics to ‘Piece by Piece’ Following Divorce from Brandon Blackstock
The 2015 version praised her ex-husband for not following in the neglectful footsteps of her father
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Kelly Clarkson is finding more “Magic” within herself these days.
During the pop singer’s Las Vegas residency on Saturday, she debuted her 2015 track “Piece by Piece” with some amended lyrics.
“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, told the audience.
“Piece by Piece” is sung from the perspective of Clarkson talking to her father about how ex-husband Brandon Blackstock fills a better role as a parent and husband than his neglectful approach. The song acts as a sequel to 2004’s “Because of You,” which is also sung to the musician’s father about how his absent parenting caused her pain and hardship.
Clarkson amended some of the lyrics to the song, which originally praised Blackstock. “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 6 years old and you know,” Clarkson belted on the original version.
Instead, the Grammy winner switched the mentions of “he” to “I,” singing “I collected me up” and “I filled the holes,” turning the song into a post-heartbreak, self-empowering anthem.
The “Rock Hudson” singer also changed the chorus in “Piece by Piece,” which used to praise her ex-husband from “He never walks away / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me” to “I just walk away / when they ask for money / I take care of me / ’cause I love me.”
The lyric change seems to point at one of the main points of contention within Blackstock and Clarkson’s divorce — money.
The couple, who tied the knot in 2013 and split in 2020, divorced in 2022.
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In July 2021, PEOPLE learned that a Los Angeles County judge ordered Clarkson to give Blackstock $150,000 per month in spousal support, as well as $45,601 per month in child support.
The arrangement meant that Blackstock, 43, would receive $195,601 in total from Clarkson each month, or roughly $2.4 million per year. The order also required the singer to pay $1.25 million towards her estranged husband’s attorney fees and costs for their ongoing divorce at the time.
A source told PEOPLE in November 2020 that Blackstock had been aiming for more than double the amount in child support, requesting that Clarkson pay him $436,000 per month ($301,000 in spousal support and $135,000 in child support).
In June, Clarkson addressed how she felt about performing “Piece by Piece” on Las Culturistas podcast.
“We’re putting the setlist together for Vegas right now,” Clarkson told hosts Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. “I don’t want to sing [‘Piece by Piece’], because that was a very hopeful place and a place of projecting what one wishes and what one hopes one didn’t fall prey to again.”
She continued, “Here’s where I landed, because I went from hardcore pass to, you know what, for a moment in my life — I was pregnant with my first child and we were in a different place — it was very different.”
“So, I’m going to respect that chapter, and I’m going to respect what happened there. And what I was feeling there is not lost — I did feel that, and that was real at one point,” reflected the American Idol alum.
Clarkson ultimately revealed that she planned to perform the track during her residency “not only for fans, but for that girl that did believe wholeheartedly that that’s what was happening, and that’s what I saw.”
She concluded, “I know that that’s incredibly sad to think about. But, you know, it’s real.”
