Kelsea Ballerini is embracing her potty mouth era.
The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer isn’t trying to be provocative or sensational about it. It’s just that, well, she’s grown up now. Sorry, kids — sometimes, adults curse.
“I started so young,” she reminds Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul, “and while ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ it and ‘Dibs’ were played on country radio, they were also on, like, Radio Disney. And so I just, I was really — not calculated in that — but, like, protective of that.”
“I’m 31, you know? And so I think especially with (Rolling Up the Welcome Mat), I was just like, I just want to write like I talk.”
So, you’ll find the S-word in the album version of her hit with Noah Kahan, and the F-word in an empowering pop-country anthem called “Wait!”
You’ll also find a singer fully in charge of her music and narrative. A one-word review of Patterns could be “confident” — heck, even the breakup songs skip the first six stages of grief and land on acceptance!
“I could take a deep dive in the details / I could hide I could cry until I throw up … but it’s as simple as we broke up,” she sings during “We Broke Up.”
Looking for self-loathing? You won’t find it here. Hoping to justify your personal doom scroll down an ex’s social media feeds? Keep it moving.
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“I think, for me, a lot of this record is evaluating my patterns — whether it’s me as an individual or me in a relationship — and noticing that I have, dare I say, a couple little toxic ones,” Ballerini says.
This isn’t to say the line between Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (Feb. 2023) and Patterns moved steadily upward for Ballerini. “We Broke Up” alludes to some early struggles in her relationship with boyfriend Chase Stokes, and “Sorry Mom” provides a laundry list of her misgivings.
Across the 15 songs, she remains resolutely committed to the thing she does best, even if she’s not being rewarded with heavy rotation at country radio. As much as any artist, Ballerini keeps her fans in focus, offering three-to-four-minute lifelines backed by fiddle, guitars and sweet harmonies.
No, she has not scored a No. 1 hit with her last three tries, but she did just announce her first arena tour. That’s grownup winning.
“I think I put a lot less stock and value in what other people think of me,” Ballerini says. “I think I just kind of have a better balance of like, ‘OK, this is my work, and yes I love it so much and — I don’t even know what I would do if I wasn’t doing all the things I’m doing — but my real life is what feeds me and what keeps me steady and on track.”
“And that’s where I get my gauge of success now.”
A thread that runs across Ballerini’s full Taste of Country Nights: On Demand interview (hear it below) is meaningful relationships. She speaks at length about her mom and reveals how she and Carly Pearce are intentional about maintaining a bond.
Ballerini saw last month’s People’s Choice Country Awards as a chance to re-connect with Shania Twain, and she even stays in touch with Taylor Swift after all these years. The now-pop star was an OG supporter who continues to show Ballerini how it’s done.
“I think when she started, like, cursing on her records, I think she kind of gave everyone permission to just talk … write like they talk and write the full truth,” Ballerini says. “And so, yeah, I was very careful to not say anything on this record just for shock and awe, but if it felt like it was the right thing to say, I would say it.”
Patterns drops on Oct. 25. Tickets for Ballerini’s newly-announced arena tour go on sale Nov. 1.
