This time last year, Kelsea Ballerini was getting ready to enter her 30s, closing out a whirlwind decade that included her steady rise to success in the country music space, getting married and divorced, and turning those deeply personal experiences into art that resonated with fans around the world.
Her 2023 EP Rolling Up The Welcome Mat was an effort to find her voice and control her own narrative. Despite being written spontaneously and released with no promo, the brutally-honest project quickly became the most acclaimed work in her discography among audiences and critics alike. While the unexpected moment took her career to new heights, it also tied Ballerini to her past, linking her to a chapter of her life that she had since closed.
Now, a year after concluding the Welcome Mat era and nearly two years into a happy relationship, a 31-year-old Ballerini is looking ahead at the next decade with a new lens, examining the patterns she’s relied on thus far in her life and deciding whether or not they serve her in this next phase–or if they ever did.
“When you look at your life and you see the things that are not working or not serving you, there’s a good chance that you’re contributing,” she tells V over Zoom. “So I think that being able to have that honest dialog with yourself first, and your therapist, and your best friend, or whoever, is the first step of being able to evolve and change and break a cycle, break a pattern.”
The result of that self-exploration is her latest musical journey on her fifth studio album, aptly-titled PATTERNS. The introspective project delves into the ways our past familial, platonic, and romantic relationships can shape our present and future. While these complex, nuanced emotions may not have been the mushy ballads some fans anticipated for this record based on her adorable social media posts with actor and VMAN cover star alum Chase Stokes, Ballerini asserts that this is her “most love-filled” record–and those looking for drama won’t find much.
“The safest part about writing a song is that I can put as much of me and my experience into it as I feel comfortable with, and then I can leave it in a three-and-a-half-minute story on a record,” she explains. “My hope is that people will then hear that song and project it onto their own lives and see how they can relate to it, rather than dig through it and try to find tea, because that is not the point, and there’s nothing in the kettle.”
Following up an acclaimed project is a terrifying feat for most artists. “Imagine me being secure enough to say that I was not worried. Couldn’t be me,” she quips, but on PATTERNS, Ballerini’s most honest songwriting yet takes center stage. She credits her collaborators–a star-studded group of all-female songwriters including Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Hillary Lindsey–for making her feel comfortable and confident throughout the process. That confidence has extended beyond songwriting, as Ballerini is set to make her television acting debut on Ryan Murphy’s new series Doctor Odyssey and judge on Season 27 of The Voice.
“I’m so in that phase of my life where the women I look up to the most are multifaceted women,” Ballerini says. “I have had such a single track mind on making records, promoting them to radio, and touring them. I’ve done that for a decade now, and so I think I have my heels dug in enough to give myself the space to try more. I also think that’s a beautiful thing as a woman now growing up, to just be able to say, like, ‘what else?’ and feel empowered enough to ask myself that.”
For more on PATTERNS, V caught up with the country icon ahead of her album release, Madison Square Garden debut, and first headlining arena tour.
V Magazine: Last time we spoke for V was a little over a year ago. You had turned thirty that day, gearing up for the VMAs, and were closing out a huge musical and personal chapter of your life along with your twenties. Your upcoming record, PATTERNS, encapsulates all the nuanced emotions that come with entering your thirties–what are your biggest takeaways from this decade so far?
Kelsea Ballerini: I’m really enjoying my thirties, and it doesn’t mean that they’re not complicated, but I’m really enjoying the self assessment that comes with your thirties, especially as a woman. I feel like that is the thesis of PATTERNS. It’s very self-examining and celebratory in some ways, but you also have to figure out what’s causing this friction and how to undo it. I feel like there’s such a valiant effort of growth through the whole project, and that’s truly how I feel in my life right now.
V: You’ve also said that people expecting a mushy, lovey-dovey album will be taken by surprise–and that’s certainly true. While the project does focus on love, it analyzes the nuances of interpersonal relationships and delves into your own patterns and cycles, which you’ve credited therapy for helping you notice. Did you view the choice to explore these intimate aspects of your relationship as risky given its public nature and perception?
KB: I would argue that this is the most love-filled record I’ve ever made–it’s just not the heart eye emoji part of love. It’s the nuance of love. And to me, in my thirties, in a two-year relationship now, that was so beautiful to be able to write about. I think everybody, no matter what job you have, if it’s forward-facing or not–when you meet someone in your thirties, you’re coming into a relationship with a lot of past relationships, and how you’ve navigated those different families, different upbringings, all these things. So it’s a lot to get to know, and it’s a lot to blend together, and that’s the truth for anyone. It’s been really beautiful to have a partner that is also an artist and a storyteller, to feel supported in that truth-telling. For me now, the beautiful part and the safest part about writing a song is that I can put as much of me and my experience into it as I feel comfortable with, and then I can leave it in a three-and-a-half-minute story on a record. My hope is that people will then hear that song and project it onto their own lives and see how they can relate to it, rather than dig through it and try to find tea, because that is not the point, and there’s nothing in the kettle.
V: Definitely. I think that idea that you bring your upbringing and past relationships into your present and future relationships runs through the whole album. The title track introduces the central theme of the generational, learned, and familial patterns that human beings tend to adhere to. The question you ask yourself–“Will I outgrow all these patterns?”–functions as the album’s thesis in many ways, and I noticed it actually sounds really similar to a question you explored on your first album almost ten years ago. On “Secondhand Smoke,” you wonder, “Am I the product of a problem that I couldn’t change?” and worry that the marital dynamics you witnessed early in your life will affect your future relationships. How has your perspective on that concept changed and/or stayed the same from writing your first album to your most recent?
KB: Oof. I mean, I think my sense of self is very different. Even in writing that song, I don’t think I understood the weight of what that question was until I went through it. But I think the thing about patterns–not the record, but actual patterns that we have in our lives–is that we have the ability to change them, and that’s a newfound discovery for me. When you look at your life and you see the things that are not working or not serving you, there’s a good chance that you’re contributing, you know? So I think that being able to have that honest dialogue with yourself first, and your therapist, and your best friend, or whoever, is the first step of being able to evolve and change and break a cycle, break a pattern. One of the patterns on this record that I explore is that I cut and ghost. It just stems from being terrified to get left, so when I see anything going slightly wrong, I just jump ship. That pattern does not serve me. It has not served me my whole life, in my career, in my friendships, in my relationships, and I had to address it. So you hear the core of that idea on “WAIT!”–I asked myself a question, “Will I outgrow all these patterns?,” and then each song is exploring different versions of that.
V: Speaking of lyrical callbacks, there’s a very intentional nod to your last project on “Baggage”–“If you want that welcome mat, then roll it out with me.” You’ve called this album “defiantly present” after more than a year of constantly revisiting a public divorce while discussing Rolling Up The Welcome Mat despite having moved on from that chapter in your personal life and being in a happy relationship. Did you feel pressure to follow up such a critically-acclaimed record that happened to result from a turbulent period in your life now that you’re in such a different place?
KB: Imagine me being secure enough to say that I was not worried. Couldn’t be me. I was terrified. I was terrified because everything about that project was so unexpected, and so I had never gone into making a full-length, commercial record with that in front of it. I think that’s why I ended up making it the way I did with four other women. Because to even start throwing paint at the wall, I needed to just do it with people that made me feel safe, to trial and error and to pitch all these different ideas. The first retreat that the five of us took, we wrote “Sorry Mom,” “Baggage,” and “Two Things.” That’s when I realized there can still be that level of honesty and self-acceptance and exploration and all of that–and it can sound like a bop, and it can sound really, really delicate. It can still have all these things in this chapter of my life. Once I found that with those women, I felt really comfortable.
V: Did you find that creating this project with the support and camaraderie that is often found specifically in an all-female space validated your experiences compared to working with male songwriters?
KB: Yes. When I would get in the room with giants in the earlier part of my career, I would always get quiet. Even though I had a lot of ideas and things to say, I would get quiet because I always wanted to hear what the hit writer would say, you know? One thing I’m so appreciative of is that not only was it so important for me to make sure that I was leading this process, it was important to them that I was leading this process. I would always come in with the titles, or with little voice notes or whatever, and then we would rally around those ideas. But they let me lead, and they encouraged me to lead, because they wanted my fingerprints to be on this record like they were on Welcome Mat. To have women that are such a pillar in the music industry and in songwriting support you in that way–on top of their lyrics and their perspectives–that to me, made me feel like I was ready to put out another record.
V: That’s really great to hear that that group was so transformative in allowing you to take the lead, and you could collaborate without feeling like you needed to prove something to yourself. Apart from songwriting, you’ve also had a really busy year filming Season 27 of The Voice as a judge and guest-starring on Ryan Murphy’s new show Doctor Odyssey. What made you venture outside your comfort zone this year?
KB: Because why not? I’m so in that phase of my life where the women I look up to the most are multifaceted women. I have had such a single track mind on making records, promoting them to radio, and touring them. I’ve done that for a decade now, and so I think I have my heels dug in enough to give myself the space to try more. I also think that’s a beautiful thing as a woman now growing up, to just be able to say, like, “what else?” and feel empowered enough to ask myself that. I mean, listen, I could be on The Voice and I could suck, and I could be on Doctor Odyssey and I could totally suck–I don’t know, I haven’t seen either yet. But the fact that I’m putting myself in those situations that are out of my comfort zone, that does not suck.
V: Yeah, totally. Well, I don’t think you’ll suck at all!
KB: I hope not! How embarrassing would that be?!
V: No, I’m sure you’ll do great at both. Did anybody give you advice for acting or for guest judging?
KB: I filled in for Kelly [Clarkson] a couple years ago and reached out to her when I got the offer to be in the seat, and she kindly reminded me that everything is pre-taped until we get to the lives. So she was like, “You have wiggle room to get your bearings. If you say something, and you’re like, wait, let me try that again, you can. So don’t put so much pressure on yourself.” Because we’re filming 12 hours a day in the beginning for the blinds, so it’s a lot at once. And she really just reminded me that there is space and time to just settle into it and get your bearings, which I did. I love the other coaches, and once we found our flow and our camaraderie, it’s been so wonderful.
V: That’s great. Well, Kelly’s amazing, of course. Any advice she would give you is all you need!
KB: I die for her. I literally die for her. Basically, she just told me to chill.
V: I love that. You’re also gearing up for a special one-night-only headlining show at Madison Square Garden, where you’ll be celebrating the album’s release by performing PATTERNS in its entirety for the very first time. What does such a huge milestone like headlining MSG signify for your career?
KB: I’ve always wanted to get to arenas, and I think that’s because growing up, I would go to Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, and those were the special shows that I got to see. So I just have this childhood, nostalgic feeling when I get to play an arena. But historically, there’s not a lot of women in country that have graduated to that stage. So I knew that if I ever did it, I had to do it right for myself and for the collective. It’s a huge step to go from rooms that are 8,000 to 15,000. It wasn’t even a fear of failure, it was just a true desire to do it right. It’s my fifth album, and it’s now or never. I’m thrilled to make that jump, but I’m also so protective of making it right and making it great.
V: And I think it’s so cool that you had your first arena headlining show at Thompson-Boling almost exactly a year before the MSG show.
KB: Yeah, and I haven’t played a lot of shows this year. It’s a new album, it’s new production, it’s new everything. So I hopefully won’t come across too dusty. We’ll see.
V: I’m sure it will be amazing. And you just announced your first-ever arena tour, which is huge! Can you give us any hints about what’s to come?
KB: Baby’s first arena tour! We’re doing a lot of shows. I think right now it’s 30, but subject to change. It’s such a live record. We obviously poured everything into making it feel amazing when you listen to it, but a lot of these songs I believe will come to life live. I think “First Rodeo” and “Deep” are two of them that I’m like, “I have to get to a room and play this.” So it just really called for a tour. I can’t wait. I’m so excited.
V: That’s so exciting! I’ll have to come see you on tour then. Finally, what is the biggest takeaway that you hope listeners gain from this project overall?
KB: Whatever they want, and that’s not a cop out. For every other album that I’ve put out, I’ve had a goal of what I want people to feel. And I think for the first time, I know what I felt making it, and I just hope that people feel something, whatever it is for them, wherever they are in their life, that they just feel whatever they want.