New album, “Piece by Piece,” comes out next month

Feb 19, 2015 16:01 GMT  ·  By
Kelly Clarkson has a new album coming out, her seventh, “Piece by Piece”
   Kelly Clarkson has a new album coming out, her seventh, “Piece by Piece”

Surprise collaborations are so hot right now, with everyone pulling all the strings they can to get a piece of the action. Kelly Clarkson, the first ever and most successful American Idol winner, would love to do a duet as well, but she can’t find the right people who’d also want to work with her.

Kelly has a new album coming out next month, her seventh, called “Piece by Piece,” but if you’re expecting to hear a surprise cameo will be on it, think again.

Kelly Clarkson wants collaborations, but no one else feels the same

In a new radio interview cited by Us Weekly, the singer reveals she’s having a very hard time getting people to work with her because they seem to be avoiding her as if she has the plague or leprosy. She doesn’t have either, she insists.

“I honestly would collaborate with a lot of people, but everyone usually says no. I’m not kidding you. I have legitimately asked several people that I’m not going to call out, and that’s cool, but I don’t know. I ask good people, I don’t want to sing with crap people, so I mean, I ask people who are great vocalists, but I’m not going to point out anyone. I have asked several people,” she says, in her usual honest manner.

Kelly Clarkson may be the production of a huge machine that plays up the talent and then forgets they ever existed, but she’s a very talented singer. If she says she went to great vocalists for collaborations and got turned down, she’s probably speaking the truth.

The Clive Davis feud

She doesn’t have the plague or anything even half as bad, but she has a long history of feuding with music boss Clive Davis, who helped launch her career. When they parted ways, it wasn’t in the most amicable fashion, with Kelly accusing him of failing to properly promote her album and constantly trying to change it, despite her other plans.

In return, in his upcoming biography, “The Sound Track of My Life,” he tried to paint her as a whinny pop star who didn’t know how to do business professionally, and more importantly, who wasn’t even worth that much as a singer / songwriter.

Kelly fought back, recalling at least 3 separate instances when she was a true professional and he wasn’t, choosing instead to humiliate and belittle her publicly.

There’s no telling if Davis is behind this new wave of doors shutting in Kelly’s face, but he might as well be. Clive Davis remains one of the biggest names in the music industry right now, and probably many artists told Kelly no when she asked for a collaboration merely thinking that it would upset Davis.

This is just a theory, of course, but this is usually how things work in showbiz, as Kelly knows by now.