Photo: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal
Elle King has explored tons of musical influences before settling into her “home” in country music, especially with the release of her latest album, Come Get Your Wife. The multi-genre Grammy Award-nominated artist — in both rock and country — caught up with Kelly Clarkson about family and music during a recent interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
King said she felt like she was “clawing” her way up in pop and rock genres, and in retrospect, feels as though “I had to be someone that I thought I had to be to get people to like me, or understand me, or validate me.”
When she started to move into the country world, however, it felt different.
“I’m from southern Ohio,” King said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “My family on my mom’s side still lives there, and it was a part of me that I kept really secret and private because it was just my real, true family. When I started playing these country shows, I felt like I was singing to my brother, to my nieces and my nephews, and my pawpaw. I felt like I could just release, and exhale and have fun and be myself, and through that… it feels like home.”
King said that country fans helped inspire her to “open up about myself and share more about my life.” In a recent interview with iHeartRadio, King credited Dierks Bentley with helping to draw her to country music: “You never forget how someone makes you feel, you know? And I am a very sensitive being, and I never forgot how people made me feel that day. I just wanted to stay in that forever, and that's what country music felt like for me.”
The Come Get Your Wife star, who recently delivered an epic performance at Stagecoach Music Festival, also talked about her son, Lucky Levi Tooker, who turns 2 later this year: “He’s good, he’s a really incredible traveller. He’s so social and friendly and warm, he loves to share. He’s a little bit of an aggressive hugger, but we’re working on it.”
King is part of the all-star iHeartCountry Festival lineup on May 13, at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Fans across the country will able to tune in to all of the incredible live performances at this year's iHeartCountry Festival as the event will be broadcast on iHeartRadio country stations nationwide, and on iHeartRadio.com as well as the iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 13th at 8pm ET/5pm PT.