Kelly Clarkson Recalls Music Executives Thinking She Couldn’t Write Songs Because She Came from “American Idol”

Jack IrvinTue, February 24, 2026 at 4:18 PM UTC

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Kelly Clarkson in February 2026

Noam Galai/Getty

Kelly Clarkson recently appeared on SiriusXM Hits 1’s The Morning Mash Up for a new interview

She recalled learning some music executives thought she couldn't write songs after she won the first season of American Idol in 2002

Clarkson also revealed her hit song "Because of You" was rejected from going on her first album, Thankful

Not everyone in the music industry believed in Kelly Clarkson's artistic talent.

In a new interview with SiriusXM Hits 1 alongside fellow The Voice coach John Legend, Clarkson recalled learning some music executives thought she couldn't write songs after she won the first season of American Idol in 2002.

The Grammy winner brought up the memory while discussing how important fans are to a musician's career. "They're the ones actually buying the music, actually showing up and actually the reason why you have your life," she said.

"I think the label was very against — I won a talent show. They did not know I was a writer, and it was very hard to get that part validated via them, so 'Because of You' was rejected the first album," continued the pop star, referencing 2003's Thankful. "They were like, 'It doesn't rhyme. It's the worst song ever,' like whatever, and I was like, 'Well, it's not really about that.'"

The talk show host said she would've been okay with the song simply being released as an "album track" rather than a single. "It's just something that's meaningful for me," said Clarkson. "And I think what really bummed me, I was kind of figuring that out about the industry early on that a lot of people just don't care. They don't care about the art of it. They just want to make the money, right?"

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Clarkson explained she "pushed so hard" for "Because of You" and "cleverly" convinced someone who was "selling records at the time" to release the song on her 2004 album Breakaway. "But then the fans, it blew up and it was like my biggest number one worldwide," she recalled.

"I think that was the surprise of like no matter how much you can feel like the machine is against you, your fans will be there and they will be the reason why you get to continue to do and not the person, they're probably going to be replaced," added the superstar. "I had like five different label heads in a matter of years. You know what I'm saying?"

"They're probably not going to be there, you know? So, it really is about doing what you love and really holding strong to that and I think I was surprised because I just didn't see that coming," she added of "Because of You."

"I thought no one would really hear it," said Clarkson.

"Because of You" was released as the fourth single from Breakaway, and the song reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as No. 1 on the U.S. Pop Airplay chart. It remains one of her most successful songs to this day and holds over 840 million streams on Spotify.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”