Kelly Clarkson is taking the high road. On her latest Kellyoke performance for her daytime program The Kelly Clarkson Show Tuesday (March 29), the 39-year-old vocalist put her spin on Kacey Musgraves brutally honest country-pop track “High Horse.”
Accompanied by her band Y’all, the American Song Contest host was washed in sunny orange light for most of the performance, a fitting choice for a track off an album titled Golden Hour. Backup singers added layers of harmony to each of Clarkson’s giddy-ups, while an electric guitar perfectly mimicked her riffs every time she sang the “high horse” hook.
This is not the first time the Voice coach has tackled a Musgraves song for Kellyoke. In February, she treated her audience to a soulful take on “Breadwinner,” a fan-favorite Star-Crossed track. Recent Kellyoke performances include covers of Billie Eilish and Khalid’s “Lovely” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” preceded by a stretch earlier this month where she dusted off a few gems in her own discography.
Golden Hour was a major success for Musgraves after it came out in 2018. In addition to snagging album of the year at the 2019 Grammys, it peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and spent 94 weeks on the chart. And though “High Horse” is a dig at a condescending person in her life, many of the tracks on Golden Hour are love songs — written for her now ex-husband Ruston Kelly.
“I was in this lonely, not-creative place and just felt like s–t about myself,” Musgraves told Billboard in 2018 about being inspired by her ex. “I had just cleared my schedule to get back to writing when I went to that show and I met him. Songs just immediately started pouring out.”
Watch Kelly Clarkson take on Kacey Musgrave’s “High Horse” below: