Kelly Clarkson's soul purpose

Kelly Clarkson's new album brought many rumours, and she's only too happy to set matters straight and take on the knockers.

Kelly Clarkson has become this year's poster girl for record company versus artist barneys. Her third album, My December, is 2007's most-discussed and analysed pop record.

It arrived surrounded by rumours of battles between Clarkson and her record company over the correct way to follow up the 11 million-selling Breakaway. However, Clarkson claims to be the one person not bothered by any of the fuss, misconceptions or rumours.

"I just laugh it off," she says. "The weird and funny thing with this whole situation is that it's not that different a record. It's a bit harder than a normal pop record but it's still a pop record. The way some people were talking about it, I'd think, 'Have you listened to the record?' It's not Guns N' Roses people ... "

Clarkson graciously addresses the whirlpool of rumours that greeted My December. One claimed she was offered $10 million by Clive Davis, the 72-year-old head of her record label, to drop four songs from the album and replace them with four tracks by hit-makers.

"There's always truth to any label offering you money to do things they know are going to be successful," Clarkson admits. "But I'm not saying that entire thing you said is true."

She denies claims she was told to apologise to Davis after their creative battle became public. And she says there wasn't any creative war.

"There's no battle," Clarkson says. "That's been the irony of my life for the last three months. Every single record I've made is the record I wanted to make. I'll never come out with a record I don't like. I mean, I'm singing. It's not like you can be forced to sing something you don't want to sing. It's obviously an age-old struggle, the artist fighting for their art, but I'm not that artsy. I'm a pop singer."
An interview with Blender magazine this year quoted Clarkson slating her record company. She says she was misquoted, despite industry rumours claiming Clarkson was told to apologise to Davis (she did so on her website) and play nice (another piece of gossip she denies).

She supposedly told the magazine Davis "hated" her self-penned 2005 hit Because Of You. "I never actually said that," she clarifies. "I never had a discussion with Clive about any of the music on Breakaway.

"The label weren't that excited about Because Of You. They weren't really into it. I had to really work at that one, get it out there, and it was successful. I don't think it's, 'Oh, I'm mad at the label,' it was more, 'I've shown you I can write, people liked it, let's work together for the next project'."

She also denies a quote that said her record company didn't take her seriously because she was "25 and a woman".

"I never said that. The only upsetting part of stuff like that is when your family calls you up and says, 'Why would you say that?' I wanted to hang up on them. My family are supposed to already know that stuff isn't true."

Interestingly, she split with manager Jeff Kwatinetz of The Firm around the time of the My December media debate. She is now managed by Narvel Blackstock, husband and manager of her idol, Reba McEntire.

"It's a hard situation everybody's in," Clarkson says. "It was a crazy couple of months. The people I'm with now I got on better with, we come from the same background. We're the same kind of people, we're very chilled and laidback."

Clarkson says the drama over My December was a case of deja vu.

"When Since U Been Gone came out everyone was like, 'Ooh, it's too hard, she's a rock chick now'. It's a pop song. I say 'yeah, yeah' in the song. That'd never be in a rock song," she says. "It's amazing to me everyone thinks it's so different, but that's cool."

She even laughs off the critical and commercial reaction to the record.

"I read: 'Kelly Clarkson's album comes into the (US) chart at a disappointing No.2'. I was like, 'Disappointing? Breakaway only made No.3 and that ended up selling 11 million.' I just laugh at it.

People try to turn things around to make them bad. I'm fortunate. I don't care. My fans are why I got here and why I've sold a million copies of this album so far."

Blogger Perez Hilton ran a story that she was prepared to record a new album ASAP with the pop songs Davis wanted after My December struggled.

"I don't know Perez Hilton and he doesn't know my schedule," she says. "We're not in the studio. We're touring this album. We're working."

There is one rumour that is actually true. Clarkson went on an American Idol charity show earlier this year, raising money for children living in poverty in the US and Africa. She sang Patti Griffin's Up To The Mountain, a song she's added to her live set. But those around her wanted her to use the show to play Never Again, a venomous song about a painful break-up.

"You have no idea how many soulless people are out there," she says.

"They wanted me to go on a charity show and perform the most bitter song ever written? No, I'm good. People wanted me to do it for promotion obviously, that's not cool. You have to do something that suits the occasion. On a show like that you don't promote yourself, that's so gross.

"There are people who will do that, they'll just sell out, sell out, sell out and that's cool, that's their thing, I'm not judging. But I'm not going to go on and sing a song that is horrible for that situation. It's about having a soul."

* Kelly Clarkson plays the Sydney Entertainment Centre on March 6, 2008. Tickets on sale next Monday, October 8 through Ticketmaster

source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22536085-5012327,00.html