Kelsea Ballerini announces extended 'Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,' asks fans for 'a favor'

She asked fans to "not dig back into the experience that it was written about."

August 2, 2023, 1:38 PM

Kelsea Ballerini's acclaimed EP, "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat," is getting the deluxe treatment.

The upcoming edition, titled "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good)," will feature a full-length interlude, updated tracks and a brand new track, "How Do I Do This."

The artist shared the announcement at a screening and conversation for her short film, which accompanies the EP, at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

"There's more to the story," she shared onstage. "'Leave Me Again' was never the last song. So 'Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good)' comes out Aug. 11."

She expanded further on the re-release later in an Instagram post featuring the track list.

"It's most important that i articulate that this re-release is for you and you only," she wrote. "The added outro's that we ended up screamsinging nightly on tour, the lyric changes along a healing journey, hearing you very loudly explain that the INTERLUDE NEEDS TO BE A FULL SONG KELSEA COME ON. plus, a new song to bring the story more up to date."

Ballerini also asked her fans for "a favor," emphasizing what she'd like them to keep in mind with the new version.

"From the deepest and purest part of my heart, i ask that you help this be ours and let the music simply be the music, not dig back into the experience that it was written about nearly a year ago," she wrote.

"As a songwriter, producer, artist i'm proud and protective of this EP, and as a woman and human also proud and protective of the new, happy season of life i’m in," she continued.

She also told fans that her "real hope is for us to continue growing, healing, and evolving together with acceptance and kindness (even when we unleash our inner fire breathing dragon singing the new versions of these songs)."

"Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good)" arrives Aug. 11 and is available for preorder now.