When Kelly Clarkson was invited to perform a tribute to Dolly Parton at the 2022 ACM Awards, she answered with an easy "yes." However, when she realized she was performing "I Will Always Love You" — one of Parton's most iconic songs — she became a bit hesitant.
In a recent interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM, Clarkson asserted that only Parton or Whitney Houston should be able to perform the classic song live.
"I was like, 'Everyone can suck it,'" she said of the song choice. "No one wants to sing that song. You either have to be Whitney Houston or Dolly Parton to sing that song."
Clarkson mentioned that while the song is a challenging one, she attempted to infuse influences from both Parton and Houston's version into her performance.
As if performing the classic song wasn't intimidating enough, Clarkson reveals that when she was about take the ACM Awards stage, she received a text that her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock was official.
"Before I go onstage to sing a song called 'I Will Always Love You,' I'm looking at Dolly Parton, and I had just gotten a text of like, 'Hey your divorce is final. You've both signed.'"
"I was like, 'Screw you, Universe.' That's the timing?" she says.
Despite that huge update in her personal life, Clarkson made it through the performance of the bittersweet song. In fact, she says the dealings of her personal life actually distracted her from the significance of the performance in a good way. She adds that her spirits were lifted when she received a text of encouragement from none other than Chris Stapleton after the performance.
"Chris Stapleton texted me after that performance and was just so complimentary of that performance," she says. "It just made me feel really good. I don't think he even knows."
"I Will Always Love You" was written solely by Parton and released in March 1974. Houston recorded her famous version for the movie The Bodyguard in 1992.
