Kelly Clarkson is getting personal with "Piece by Piece."
The singer premiered a music video for the title track of her seventh studio album Thursday. The new single follows the releases of "Invincible" and "Heartbeat Song."
While promoting her album in March, Clarkson talked to Glamour about how the song "Piece by Piece" came to be. "I had [my daughter, River Rose Blackstock], and even from holding her the first day, I was like, 'How could anyone walk away from that?' Then I started thinking that my husband [Brandon Blackstock] is such a great father. He's not an audience guy—he is onstage doing the work with me. He changes diapers, he stays up, and if I've had a late night, he'll wake up with her in the morning," the musician gushed. "We're definite partners, and I felt so lucky."
Clarkson, whose parents divorced when she was 5, admitted she was distrusting of men until she met Blackstock. "I was talking to my sister on the phone about how sometimes girls with daddy issues don't find men like that! You find men who are all you knew, and I just feel so lucky. Maybe it's because I waited and worked through my 20s. It's a positive song, even though I know it sounds sad," the pop star admitted. "I don't know what my father went through as a child, and I don't know why he left and made the decisions he made, but everyone's human."
"I don't understand it for me, but I understand the depth of what that is—having a child—now, and he's made me want to be that much more present in my family."
"Piece by Piece" wasn't hard to write, but it has been hard to perform.
"I have yet to get through it emotionally; I don't mean vocally," the American Idol winner told Glamour. "I haven't gone through it yet once, so that will prove to be interesting. It's not even sad tears; it's just such a beautiful thing that I have found. It's completely magical because there's a little part of me that didn't even know that it existed. I knew that this kind of love existed and that other people found it, but it's such a breathtaking moment. I'm going to just have to deaden myself and not listen to the words that I'm singing. I'm an emotional singer anyway, so it's easy for me to get lost in any story that I'm the vessel for at that moment."
Five months after her interview with the magazine, Clarkson cried while performing "Piece by Piece" at the Staples Center in L.A. "I wasn't planning on announcing this, but I can't [get through it]. Totally pregnant," she revealed. After composing herself, she said, "That was not planned. I just didn't want you to think I was crazy or something. Honestly, I'm so hormonal today. Nothing's wrong. Everything's great."
Clarkson added, "I haven't vomited yet."
Sadly, that wouldn't be the case in the months ahead.
As Clarkson revealed in an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning that aired Wednesday, she has been suffering from "all-day" sickness with her second pregnancy. "I have to get IVs and fluids because I get so dehydrated. It's really bad."