Kelly Clarkson reveals the hit by Garth Brooks that inspired her to write a song about her divorce

She spoke to guest Garth Brooks about his 1989 song, "The Dance."

December 14, 2020, 2:28 PM

Kelly Clarkson is opening up on the emotions she is processing amid her divorce.

While speaking to her guest, Garth Brooks, on a recent episode of "The Kelly Clarkson Show," the singer and television host, who filed for divorce from her husband, Brandon Blackstock, in June, discussed the "shame and guilt" attached to the end of her marriage.

"There's been a lot of books and people always give you stuff to help, especially when you have kids and stuff," said Clarkson, who shares two children with Blackstock, 6-year-old River and 4-year-old Remington.

"There's so much shame and guilt, and everybody sends you stuff, and I was just kind of working through it and I couldn't quite nail down the feeling," she continued. "You don't want to crap on it -- you don't want to say that didn't count or matter, but you don't know what to put in it because it didn't work out how you wanted."

She then explained that one of Brooks' tracks, his 1989 song, "The Dance," came on while she was listening to a playlist, and she felt it helped her to find the words for what she is going through.

"I think a lot of people that go through such a devastating [thing], there's a lot of grief, a lot of loss and a lot of change," she said. "All of the books were helpful, but it's so funny, I guess because I'm a musician ... I was listening to 'The Dance'... I got the point."

Some of the lyrics to the emotional song include: "And now I'm glad I didn't know/ The way it all would end/ The way it all would go/ Our lives/ Are better left to chance/ I could have missed the pain/ But I'd have had to miss the dance."

Clarkson said she's sang that track of Brooks' since she was a child, but it never "hit" her until now.

She then shared that "The Dance" inspired her to "therapeutically" write her own song about her divorce, which she revealed will be on her next album.

Clarkson hasn't disclosed the release date for her ninth studio album, a follow-up to "Meaning of Life, which was released in 2017.

The singer previously revealed on her show that the hardest part of her divorce is its impact on her children.

"I think, as women especially, we're trained ... to take it all on, and you can deal with it, and you're fine, but it's your babies that you worry about," she said.

In October, she also revealed that she's consulted child therapists to help her little ones through the process.