Kelly Clarkson Hires Reba's Rep

Mon., Jul. 2, 2007 7:09 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Kelly Clarkson spread her wings and chose to fly to Tennessee.

E! News confirmed Monday that the Grammy winner has signed up with Nashville-based Starstruck Entertainment and that Reba McEntire's hubby, Starstruck CEO Narvel Blackstock, will step up as her personal manager.

Blackstock replaces Jeff Kwatinetz of the Firm, the Los Angeles-based powerhouse that Clarkson cut ties with in mid-June after a mini creative war broke out between the singer, her rep and record label RCA over the material on her latest album, My December, which came out June 26.

"Kelly is an incredible talent with an unlimited future," Blackstock said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be working with her." Blackstock, a former member of McEntire's band before becoming her manager in 1988 and then her husband a year later, also reps "Nobody But Me" crooner Blake Shelton.

Starstruck vice president of marketing, Trish McClanahan, will also assist with the day-to-day operations of managing Clarkson's career, which RCA honcho Clive Davis reportedly thought would falter after her fans got a load of My December.

According to preliminary sales reports, however, Clarkson's third studio album—a somewhat edgier, darker effort than her previous offerings, on which all the songs were either written or cowritten by the American Idol winner—should hit the Billboard 200 at number two this week, behind only Hannah Montana II: Meet Mylie Cyrus.

It is now up to Blackstock and Starstruck, then, to pump up the volume for Clarkson, who ended up canceling her summer stadium tour largely because of less than stellar ticket sales.

"The day when she will play in sold-out arenas is no doubt coming, but for now her fans should look forward to seeing her in a more intimate concert environment," Gregg Perloff, CEO of Another Planet Entertainment, said last month.

Could Clarkson, who shot an episode of CMT Crossroads with McEntire this year and performed a duet with the country superstar at the 42nd Academy of Country Music Awards in May, be taking a cue from fellow Idol alum Carrie Underwood and pop-rockers like Sheryl Crow and Jon Bon Jovi, who have been proving that country crossover appeal can go a long way?

Well, the 25-year-old Clarkson will be heard this fall on the tune "Because of You" on McEntire's new album.

But as evidenced by My December, which Los Angeles Times music critic Ann Powers called "a solid, heartfelt, occasionally beautiful exercise in mainstream modern rock," it appears as if Clarkson is more interested right now in sharpening her edge and tightening her grip on her creative control than she is in smoothing her passage up the charts.

Clarkson will be at Giants Stadium in New Jersey this weekend, joining Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins, Alicia Keys and many others for the U.S. installment of Live Earth.