Kelsea Ballerini offered up a raw, stripped-down rendition of her autobiographical track “Penthouse” during a recent appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The pop-country star introduced the cut from her Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP by reflecting on her journey to stardom and the unexpected challenges she’s faced along the way.
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“The truth is [that] I started writing songs when I was 12 years old because my parents were getting divorced, and I’m an only child,” Ballerini told the crowd. “I had all these really, really big feelings that I didn’t know what to do with. The gift of writing songs fell into my lap, and it’s been the truest love of my life ever since.”
She also acknowledged her highly-publicized divorce from fellow country artist Morgan Evans, which Ballerini directly addresses in the songs that make up Rolling Up the Welcome Mat. It’s a project that she notes as “one of the most unexpected, healing parts of my whole career and my whole life.”
“Whether you know me or not, you probably know a lot about my life the last year, which has been really… fun,” she added with a laugh. “But I got back to the 12-year-old girl who just wrote songs because I had a lot of big feelings that I needed to sort out.”
For the first time on the Grand Ole Opry stage, Ballerini treated fans to a captivating rendition of “Penthouse.” Accompanied only by piano, Ballerini showed off her vocal range while rolling through the emotional tune, which earned her a standing ovation.
[RELATED: Kelsea Ballerini Says Wynonna Judd Was First to Call after Making Divorce Public]
Earlier today (August 2), Ballerini revealed Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) will hit streaming services on August 11. This expanded and reimagined version of her EP, released in February, includes the unreleased track “How Do I Do This.”
The announcement was paired with a request that the focus stays firmly on her art rather than the relationship that initially inspired the songs. The 29-year-old singer/songwriter spoke candidly about her rocky divorce from Evans while promoting the release of Rolling Up the Welcome Mat but has mostly shifted away from the topic in recent weeks, instead sharing messages of positivity and snapshots with her current boyfriend, actor Chase Stokes. Now, Ballerini hopes that fans follow her lead.
“From the deepest and purest part of my heart, I ask that you help this be ours and let the music simply be the music, not dig back into the experience that it was written about nearly a year ago,” Ballerini shared in a social media post. “As a songwriter, producer, artist I’m proud and protective of this EP, and as a woman and human also proud and protective of the new, happy season of life I’m in.”
Watch Ballerini’s performance of “Penthouse” at the Grand Ole Opry below.
(Photo by Steve Jennings/WireImage)
