During her 10-day Las Vegas residency, Kelly Clarkson surprised the audience last Saturday night by singing a song many thought she’d never sing again, “Piece by Piece.” But this time, she rewrote the lyrics into an anthem of self-empowerment.
First released in 2015, “Piece by Piece” spoke to the pain of Clarkson being abandoned by her father when she was young, but honored her then husband, Brandon Blackstock, saying he was putting her back together “piece by piece” and proving that husbands and fathers could “stay” and leave a different legacy — one of love and kindness. Painting Blackstock as the hero, the final stanza declares her belief that her husband never will break their own daughter’s heart by walking away like her father did.
Amber Wylde
But then the unthinkable happened: Clarkson and Blackstock, who share two children together, separated in 2020 and divorced in 2022, changing that story and its legacy forever. Gut punch.
The song “Rock Hudson” on Clarkson’s newly released album Chemistry briefly references this song with a line that says, “By the way, piece by piece; I found out my hero’s me.”
Although fans didn’t know what would become of the original song, the plot twist was that she reclaimed it rather than retired it.
On Saturday, bringing her fans to tears, she performed the song with new lyrics for the first time changing “he” to “I” and referencing herself in places where she’d previously mentioned Blackstock. Sadly, many of the lyrics that previously applied to her father now also apply to Blackstock, which is evident about halfway through the song with lyrics like, “I just walk away/When they ask for money,” “I will never leave them/Like you left me” (referencing their two children River and Remington), and “I take care of things/When you leave scars.”
Perhaps one of the most powerful rewrites is the line that was changed from, “Piece by piece/He restores my faith/That a man can be kind/And a father could stay” to now say, “Piece by piece/I restored my faith/That a heart could still beat/Even when it breaks.”
“It’s a line that anyone who’s experienced loss can relate to on some level.”
A line that speaks to heartache and loss, to walking through grief and overcoming more than you think you are capable of, it’s a line that anyone who’s experienced loss can relate to on some level.
So many of us, myself included, have experienced the pains of an unexpected and painful divorce. Clarkson brilliantly puts words to our heartache and leads us toward a belief in ourselves for healing and wholeness, rather than a reliance on others to fill our void. By empowering herself, she empowers all of us to be the hero in our own life story.
It’s not the story we’re told to want for ourselves. We’re told to look outward to others for our hero — someone who will rescue us from the pain others cause us, or that at times, we even cause ourselves. It’s the “knight in shining armor on a white horse” mentality so many of us were taught to desire through storybooks and Disney movies as kids.
But slowly that narrative is changing, both in Disney movies that portray self-empowering roles for women, to films like the new Barbie movie that is breaking blockbuster records by portraying a matriarchal world instead of a patriarchal one. Media, through both film and music, is beginning to communicate self-empowerment and control over one’s life through the decisions we make and how we show up for ourselves.
Pink, in the official music video for her new song “Trustfall” on the album by the same name, opens with the question, “Are you going to fall? Is someone supposed to catch you, or do you catch yourself?” And then proclaiming, “There will be something worth falling for.”
“To freefall at all is to trust that whatever it is, is worth falling, and possibly failing, for.”
We all fall in different ways — for love, for money, for a dream, a title, a relationship. To jump at all is to risk getting hurt. To believe in love is to risk rejection, betrayal and abandonment. We never know the outcome of a situation or relationship on the front end. To freefall at all is to trust that whatever it is, it’s worth falling, and possibly failing, for.
The more we know ourselves, the more we can trust ourselves to be our own heroes when others fail us. To know that inevitably, there will be painful experiences that don’t end up the way we expect them to, but piece by piece, we can restore our own faith and show up for ourselves in the ways we need, even when others disappoint or hurt us.
Clarkson could have easily packed that song away and labeled it “forever retired.” As one who was deeply affected by the original song and is now even more deeply impacted by the rewrite, I’m so grateful she gave one of her most iconic songs a new life and empowered us all to love ourselves more because of it.
Amber Wylde is a national speaker, community healer and the author of three books. Her newest book, Out of Focus: My Story of Sexuality, Shame and Toxic Evangelicalism, releases October 2023. As a gay woman living with the invisible disability of both Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis, Amber specializes in bringing messages of diversity, hope and self-acceptance to those who have been pushed to the margins. She is host of the Unashamed Love Collective — a safe haven for LGBTQ people and allies that fosters supportive community. She also leads Cultivating Community Retreats — small, intimate group gatherings that build lasting relationships with like-minded people. Learn more at Patreon.com/AmberCantornaWylde, on social media @AmberCantornaWylde or online at AmberCantornaWylde.com.