When Kelly Clarkson originally wrote her 2015 hit single “Piece by Piece,” she was reflecting on her parents’ divorce and her frayed relationship with her father. Clarkson revisited the emotional ballad during her Las Vegas residency on Saturday (August 5) and amended the lyrics to reflect her 2022 divorce from Brandon Blackstock.
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The original version of “Piece by Piece” played as a sequel to Clarkson’s 2005 hit “Because of You,” which also referenced her absentee father. The 2015 “Piece by Piece” praised her ex-husband for raising their daughter and not making the same mistakes her father made — But piece by piece, he collected me up off the ground where you abandoned things / Piece by piece he filled the holes that you burned in me at six years old / And you know, he never walks away, he never asks for money / He takes care of me, he loves me / Piece by piece, he restored my faith that a man can be kind and a father could stay.
Revisiting the song now, a year after her divorce, Clarkson shifted her lyrics to reflect the love for oneself with the “he” pronouns in the original version switched to “I,” singing I collected me up and I filled the holes. She also switched the chorus 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.
“This song I initially wrote just super hopeful, right?” Clarkson told the audience. “And, well, sometimes hopeful turns into hopeless, so here we go.”
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At first, Clarkson decided not to include “Piece By Piece” in the set during her residency, which runs through Saturday (August 19) but decided to add it on “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 said. “I know that’s incredibly sad to think about, but, you know, it’s real.”
Clarkson and Blackstock were married in 2013 and filed for divorce in 2020, which was finalized in 2022. The couple share two children, son Remington Alexander, 7, and 8-year-old daughter River Rose.
The title track of her 2015 album, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, “Piece by Piece” peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
