- Kelly Clarkson recently interviewed Jon Stewart on The Kelly Clarkson Show, who asked about when she discovered her singing talent.
- Clarkson said she never thought of herself as unique when she was younger because “everyone sang in my small town.”
- Her passion for singing skyrocketed in high school, and she immediately took off to Hollywood after graduating.
Plenty of famous singers grew up certain they were destined for stardom, but Kelly Clarkson wasn’t one of them. She was raised in a small town in Texas, and merely saw herself as another voice in the church choir.
“Every time I hear people in interviews, they’re like, ‘I’ve been singing and dancing since I was 2’ and I’m like, ‘Not me,’” she told guest Jon Stewart on The Kelly Clarkson Show, who asked about discovering her talent. “You must’ve known, I hate to use the phrase predetermined, but you must’ve felt an affinity really early on because you can’t walk around with a gift like that and not realize it probably pretty early on,” he said.
Clarkson shook her head. “Everyone sang in my small town,” she explained. “We all went to church, so everyone sang.” Stewart was sure that she would’ve at least discovered her skill by the age of eight or nine. “Not really,” she continued. “I had so many talented singers around me. I really did. And I know people always say, ‘Oh my God, you sing so well and you can do so many things.’ I grew up with a lot of girlfriends that could do that, so it wasn’t really an abnormal thing.”
That’s why she didn’t take pursuit of music seriously until she was in seventh grade. One day, the choir teacher overheard her singing in the hall and urged her to join the program. From there, her passion skyrocketed, and immediately after graduating high school, she took off to Hollywood in search for a record label deal.
Unfortunately, Clarkson didn’t have much luck shopping her demos around Los Angeles, and to make matters worse, the apartment she was sharing with a friend randomly caught fire one day and destroyed all of her belongings. “My place burned down and I had been living in my car,” she told Gayle King on CBS This Morning in 2015. So she decided to cut her losses and move back home to Texas, where she was immediately tipped off about a local talent show audition. She had no clue it was for American Idol.
“You know, when you’re poor, you have nothing to lose, you go to any audition,” Clarkson explained. “And I was like ‘Yep, I’m in.’” Still, she never expected the fame that followed her win. She only hoped it gave her enough exposure to at least land a management team.
“I just wanted to sing,” she said. “And my initial goal actually, even when I was little, wasn’t to be the frontrunner. I wanted to be a backup singer ... I am so happy we have Madonna, and Britney and Beyonce–y’all just live it up. I wanna be, like, right underneath.”
Whether or not it’s what she wanted, she’s far surpassed that goal. With three No. 1 hits, 11 Top 10 hits, three Grammys and a personality that the world admires, the “Breakaway” singer has definitely earned her own seat at the table. And she’s not getting up any time soon.
Support from readers like you helps us do our best work. Go here to subscribe to Prevention and get 12 FREE gifts. And sign up for our FREE newsletter here for daily health, nutrition, and fitness advice.
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor who covers health, nutrition, and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She’s always open to conversations about fueling up with flavorful dishes, busting beauty standards, and finding new, gentle ways to care for our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University with specializations in women, gender, and sexuality studies and public health, and is a born-and-raised midwesterner living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kitties.
