LEFT: Kelly Clarkson sheds tears singing “Piece By Piece.” (Travis / YouTube) RIGHT: Kelly Clarkson kicks off new Las Vegas residency. (Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Live Nation Las Vegas)
Kelly Clarkson’s deeply personal song “Piece By Piece” has been changed as her life no longer reflects the original lyrics.
Kelly Clarkson originally wrote the song about how her father left her when she was young, yet the love of another man healed her. It seems she wrote it about her then-husband, Brandon Blackstock, whom she married in 2013.
The lyrics went,
“But piece by piece, he collected me upOff the ground, where you abandoned things, yeahPiece by piece, he filled the holes that you burned in meAt six years old and you knowHe never walks awayHe never asks for moneyHe takes care of meHe loves mePiece by piece, he restored my faithThat a man can be kind and a father could stay.”
Clarkson clearly poured her vulnerable feelings into this song, which she made clear when she broke down in tears while singing it on American Idol.
Kelly Clarkson’s New Lyrics
Sadly, Brandon Blackstock and Kelly Clarkson divorced in 2020, which was finalized in 2022. Since then, Clarkson has changed the lyrics to her hit song. It now reads,
“I just walk away
when they ask for money
I take care of me
’cause I love me
Piece by piece, I restored my faith
That a heart can still beat, even when it breaks.”
While performing her new rendition of the song, Clarkson broke down in tears and vulnerably opened up to the audience about how these new lyrics make her feel.
“This is probably the only song in my career that will just keep changing. It’s one of those things when I wrote it, look, I was feeling a certain way. And I think hoping, you know, more than… Anyway, I think it was more hope, right?”
She continued,
“Then I changed it a couple summers ago. I had to sing it, and I was like, man, I gotta sing it, because people keep asking for it. But it just didn’t feel right, so I changed the lyrics a little. And then I was like, you know what? I kind of like the way I’m going with it, so I changed it just a little bit more.. It kind of became more aware to me that it’s like, man, this is kind of a lot to put on one person anyway, right? Like, therapy, hey! Oh sh**!”
This is when she began to cry on stage. However, once she collected herself she left the audience with a positive message.
