Kelsea Ballerini is used to making waves in the music industry, whether that be through her songs, performances or advocacy.
The 31-year-old singer has proved herself as an artist over the last decade, releasing five albums (she dropped her new album Patterns on Oct. 25), earning four Grammy nominations and scoring seven Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country chart. But she’s also made noise with her outspoken political views, which hasn’t always made things easy for her in an industry that typically isn’t all that hospitable to progressive politics.
Still, Ballerini has continued to go against the grain, following in the footsteps of a handful of opinionated country artists such as The Chicks. For example, Ballerini sparked controversy with her 2023 CMT Music Awards performance, when she brought out Drag Queens onstage amid Tennessee’s anti-drag legislation.
“There is just so much hate in the world and it’s so loud and that was my first experience, secondhand feeling that and it made me really wake up to just making sure that I’m aligned and that I can again be a good person first, good artist second,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter about making a statement with the performance.
Below, in a recent Zoom interview with THR, Ballerini gets candid about using her platform to advocate for women’s rights and the LGBTQ community, what she hopes people take away from her new album Patterns and what her perfect day off looks like with boyfriend Chase Stokes.
What have you learned about yourself over the last decade, from when your debut album The First Time released in 2015 to now Patterns, your fifth studio album?
What haven’t I learned over the last decade? I think that the core of who I am and what drives me is the same, but I think the rest of my life is unrecognizable. I’ve always tried my hardest to just protect the idea that my favorite part of what I do is writing songs, and the thing that’s made me sleep at night is knowing that one day, if and when the radio stops playing me and when the venues get smaller and smaller and smaller, at the end of the day, I can still be a songwriter for the rest of my life. And I think holding that thought close when I get overwhelmed or when I start operating from a place of like scarcity, that’s really helped me.
Was there a specific song on Patterns that is notably special to you?
“Sorry Mom” was like one of the first songs that I wrote with the women that I made the record with, and so it holds a lot of value to me because of that. But I think it was the first song that I wrote that I realized that I could still have a level of vulnerability and honesty in this phase of my life and it would still be interesting. And I love my mom so much, we’re really close. And I feel like it was a song to honor, not only her but honor like this phase of adulthood in our relationship, and I think that was a really important one for me. Listen, I will write sad songs till the day I die. It’s my favorite pastime. But when I write a bop that I feel good about, I’m like, “Yes, it’s a good day,” because those are few and far between for me, they’re harder to write. And so “Baggage” and “WAIT!” were really fun for me to write.
Can you talk me through your songwriting process? Has it always been a creative outlet for you?
Honestly, I started writing songs when I was 12, 13 and my parents were getting divorced. And I’m an only child so I was like searching for somewhere to put all these really big feelings and I fell in love with songwriting. And then I was like, I want to do this for my life, and then I was lucky and blessed enough to make a first record and then it was my life and my career.
Why is it so important for you to use your platform to advocate for women’s rights and the LGBTQ community, kind of going against the stigma surrounding the country music space?
For a long time, I was so scared of saying anything wrong. And then I asked myself one day, what does that mean? Like if I’m pissing people off for saying something that I actually align with, are those the people that I really want coming to my shows and supporting me anyway? Probably not. And in fact, the loudest ones that I’ll piss off are the ones that never would come to a show anyway. Like they’re just not gonna do that. So let me die to the people-pleaser in me, let me get educated, let me get my footing on what it looks like for me ‘cause it looks different for anyone with a platform, right? And I think I just slowly ebbed into being outspoken about certain things in a way that felt really true to me. And like I was doing the right thing for what I believe in.
How do you navigate between your personal and public life and what you choose to share with fans, such as your current relationship with actor Chase Stokes?
I think it ebbs and it flows all the time and I think this record will be a true litmus test on how we operate. We’re really teammates and that’s taken a lot of effort. Like he’s [Stokes] on a press tour right now for his show [Outer Banks] and I’m doing a ton of promo for the record and in tandem, it’s like we’re doing a press tour for our relationship and we’ve both had to kind of have a lot of conversations about how that makes us feel, what we’re willing to share. But at the end of the day, we’re teammates and we celebrate wins really big and really loudly together.
What’s your preferred way to disconnect from work and social media?
One thing that I told him when we first got together, I said if I do anything in this relationship, it will be keep us normal and I meant it with my whole heart. Like I love my real life so much, and I think the older I’ve gotten, I value it more and I need balance. I’m a better artist and performer and songwriter if I’m balanced. And I credit us both because when we’re able to — like even this weekend, we have two days off together for the rest of the month and we’ll be in Nashville with the dogs, grilling out, watching a show, and then we’ll both go back to these big worlds in these big lives. And I really appreciate the fact that it’s a value to both of us to keep the normalcy and keep the balance.
Is there anything you’re obsessed with at the moment, such as a movie, TV show, food, etc?
The meal of the year in this house has been perfecting the spicy carbonara. And then on the side doing some thinly sliced hand-breaded parmesan-crusted chicken. Then you have the spicy pasta, with the chicken. Oh, it’s so good. It’s so good!
You mentioned songwriting is one of your favorite parts of being an artist, but do you have another favorite?
Producing, honestly. My first few records, I was a sponge and I was watching and asking a lot of questions and I really trusted the producers I was working with. But over the last couple of projects, I just stopped dumbing myself down. I was like, just because I can’t play this guitar riff doesn’t mean I can’t sing it to the guitar player. Just because I don’t know what this knob does, doesn’t mean I can’t ask and figure it out, you know what I mean?
You also dabbled in acting a few times over the years, most recently with Doctor Odyssey. Would you like to do more acting in the future?
I said the hardest no to acting for years because I was so scared of failing and like failing on screen publicly to me is nightmare fuel. And then I was like, well, if it scares you, you should probably do it. That’s how you grow. And if you fail, good thing that you’re a singer and good thing that you’re gonna keep making records for the rest of your life. So this opportunity presented itself and I love the character that I get to play. It was a lot of screaming, crying and throwing up quite literally the whole time. And if I can enjoy this experience, then I probably will love to do it again. And I just loved it so much.
What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve overcome to help get you where you are today?
Comparison. I think for several years of my career, I was looking sideways instead of ahead and I wish I could get those years back. I think it made me not as focused as I like to be and it made me disingenuous to be happy for other people. And I really had to work on that for myself.
As a woman in the industry who is proudly outspoken about her beliefs, what advice would you give to other women who aspire to work in music or any job field really?
I would say you’re not on a clock. I really would. And I mean that in every way. I think if you have a knowingness of something that you were meant to do with your life in any capacity, take your time until it’s right. And there will be moments of impatience and there will be moments where you wonder if and when. But I really think reminding ourselves that we’re not on a clock and that every day, every second, every decision is moving us towards the right thing is important.
If someone is discovering your music for the first time with Patterns, what would you like them to know?
I hope that if they hear one song it makes them want to hear the rest because I think there’s so many corners of me as a songwriter, artist, woman, creator, all the things on this record. And so if someone hears a song, like “Patterns,” they’re probably not expecting a song like “WAIT!” If someone hears a song, like, “Cowboys Cry Too,” they’re probably not expecting a song like “Deep,” but it all lives within the same project. And I’ve always been like that, like, I’m a very eclectic songwriter and influenced by a lot. And so I hope that if someone hears something that they like, they’ll go take a deeper dive.
If you had to describe what makes Kelsea Ballerini, Kelsea Ballerini, what would you say?
Probably the fact that I’m a double Virgo Cancer moon. That is very much so exactly what makes me me. Like I cry but on a schedule, you know, like let me pencil it in. Let me tell you, it’s 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the door is locked, I’m crying [Laughs].
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