Kelly Clarkson’s Label Didn’t Want to Cut Her Biggest Hit

Kelly Clarkson learned early on in her career that it’s worthwhile to push back against music industry executives when they don’t see the value in a song she loves.

In a new interview with Sirius XM that also features her fellow The Voice coach John Legend, Clarkson recounted how coming from American Idol put her at a disadvantage with label executives.

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They thought she was just a TV show star, not a songwriter. And they were ready to dismiss the song that wound up becoming one of her all-time biggest hits.

Kelly Clarkson Explains How She Fought to Include ‘Because of You’ On Her Album

Clarkson explains that she pitched her song “Because of You” for her first album, and the label flat-out “rejected” it.

“They were like, ‘It doesn’t rhyme. It’s the worst song ever,'” she recalls.

She said that the song didn’t need to be a single, but she wanted to include it on an album track list because it was “meaningful to me.” Clarkson originally wrote “Because of You” at 16 years old, inspired by her difficult relationship with her father as her parents were going through a divorce.

“Because of You” eventually ended up as a single on her second album, Breakaway, and wound up becoming the biggest global hit of her career.

Kelly Clarkson Reveals What “Because of You” Taught Her About the Music Industry 

Clarkson says that hearing “Because of You” be dismissed so quickly “bummed me out” because it taught her a tough truth about the music industry.

That was “that a lot of people just don’t care,” she reflects. “They don’t care about the art of it, they just wanna make the money.”

But fighting for the song, and ultimately releasing it as a single, showed her something much more hopeful.

“But then the fans got on board with it and it was my biggest No. 1 worldwide,” she continues. “So I think that was the surprise of, like, no matter how much you can feel like the machine is against you, your fans will be there, and they will be the reason why you get to continue to do it.”

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She also points out that record executives come and go, but many fans stay in an artists’ corner through their whole careers.

“I’ve had like, five different label heads in a matter of years,” Clarkson notes. “…So it really is about doing what you love and holding strong to that. I think I was surprised because I just didn’t see that coming. I thought no one would hear [the song.] I thought it would be an album track.”