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Kelly Clarkson Changes ‘Piece by Piece’ Lyrics After Brandon Blackstock Divorce: ‘Hopeful’ to ‘Hopeless’
Kelly Clarkson has removed references to ex-husband Brandon Blackstock in her song “Piece by Piece,” which was originally a ballad about how he healed her heart after she was abandoned by her father as a child. She changed the lyrics to take out how “he” helped her and replaced it with “I,” turning the tune into a self-empowerment anthem during a performance in Las Vegas on Saturday, August 5.
“This song I initially wrote just super hopeful, right? And well, sometimes hopeful turns into hopeless, so here we go, ‘Piece by Piece,’” Kelly, 41, told the audience at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood while introducing the song.
Kelly released the ballad in 2015, two years after she married Brandon, 46, in an intimate Tennessee wedding. The tune revealed the pain she felt when her dad abandoned her family when she was 6 years old and how her husband helped repair her love and trust in men.
In the original lyrics, The Voice alum sang, about Brandon, “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,” Kelly changed the words to “I collected me up” and “I filled the holes.”
The daytime talk show host also made sure to change the second part of the chorus, especially the line about how Brandon never asked her for money. The original lyrics were, “He never walks away / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me.” Instead, Kelly sang, “I just walk away / when they ask for money / I take care of me / ’cause I love me.”
Finances were a major sticking point in Kelly and Brandon’s divorce after she filed to end their marriage in 2020. Despite a prenuptial agreement in place before their wedding, the former talent manager asked for $436,000 a month from Kelly, including $301,000 in spousal support and $135,000 in child support. He also asked the Grammy winner to pay $2 in million attorney fees.
Eventually the “Since U Been Gone” songstress agreed to a one-time payment of $1.3 million, with an additional $115,000 in monthly spousal support until January 2024. Kelly also is paying monthly child support payments of $45,601 for their two children, River Rose, 9, and Remington Alexander, 7. While the duo share joint custody of the kids, they live primarily with the Emmy winner while Brandon has monthly visitations.
This wasn’t the first time Kelly not so subtly called out Brandon in a song. She changed the lyrics to GAYLE’s hit single “abcdefu” during a March 30 episode of her talk show, changing the chorus from “Forget you and your mom and your sister and your job / and your broke-ass car and that s—t you call art” to “Forget you and your dad and the fact that you got half / and my broken heart turned that s—t into art.”
