Kelly Clarkson Reveals She Was Appropriately ‘Inebriated’ to Record Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘You’re Drunk, Go Home’

On Friday’s (Sept. 30) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson welcomed her friend and now-collaborator Kelsea Ballerini to talk all about working together on Ballerini’s new song “You’re Drunk, Go Home,” also featuring Carly Pearce. And as it turns out, the song’s title was all too appropriate.

Clarkson recalled the day she recorded the song — the very same day that Ballerini had asked her to be on it — and how she had already had some celebratory drinks since it was her last day of work before a summer break.

“I get to the studio here with [music director] Jason [Halbert], and I get in there and I’m like, ‘Look, I didn’t know I was gonna be singing today,’” Clarkson remembered. “I didn’t know! … So I had to sing a song called ‘You’re Drunk, Go Home’ inebriated, trying to sing first soprano parts like, ‘I’m fine!'”

Clarkson insisted that she doesn’t make it a habit to record music under the influence. “This has never happened to me in 20 years!” she said. “I’ve never, ever been inebriated while singing something. And [now] I am while singing ‘you’re drunk, go home.'”

In an interview with Billboard, Ballerini said she thought of her friend of 10 years Pearce immediately for the song and then sent it to Clarkson too, trying to add “someone who can add a different texture, vocally.”

“I thought the biggest ask I could make is Kelly Clarkson, and I texted her that morning,” Ballerini shared. “She did her vocals that night.”

Watch Ballerini’s appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show and hear the playful new song, from Ballerini’s just-released album Subject to Change, below.