Kelly Clarkson is opening up about filming for The Voice Season 14 with fellow coaches Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, and Alicia Keys, and revealing why mainstay coach Blake “made so much fun” of her when she finally got in her red spinning chair during the recently filmed blind audition stages of the NBC show.
Kelly spoke out about working with her fellow musicians in a new interview, where she admitted that the country star was his usual playful self as they searched for more talent and certainly wasn’t afraid to use his trademark banter on her as they filmed together.
Revealing that she made the mistake of telling the “I’ll Name The Dogs” singer just how nervous she was before starting the blind audition stages, she told Entertainment Tonight this week that Blake most definitely used that to his advantage as they went head-to-head to build their teams.
“I was so nervous and Blake was making so much fun of me because I was nervous about it,” the former American Idol winner said of how Shelton used her nerves against her during her first days on the set as a coach. Though it seems like the banter was all in good fun, as the star revealed last year that it was actually her close relationship with the country star that convinced her to join the show.
Clarkson, who’s appeared on The Voice multiple times in the past as an adviser and mentor but never as an official coach, then explained that she was especially nervous because she knows that how she would hear the contestants sing in the studio isn’t always how they come across on TV.
“When you watch, you hear the singer differently than you hear in a room with all that ambiance and everything,” Kelly said of the blind audition stages.
“I was nervous that I wasn’t gonna turn when I should’ve turned, or I was gonna turn and thought someone was awesome but then it was like, ‘Oh no.’ I was really nervous,” Clarkson added.
But while Blake may have been poking a little fun at her after appearing on 14 consecutive seasons of the show so far, Kelly teased that she has her own strategy when it comes to competing against him, Adam, and Alicia.
The mom of two – who took aim at President Donald Trump at the Golden Globes on January 7 – joked that her biggest plan to get contestants on Team Kelly and away from Shelton and her fellow coaches is actually to “talk them to death” because she knows she’s got the gift of the gab more than her fellow stars.
“Like, [I] out talk the other coaches, because it’s one of my things that I do. I talk a lot,” the “Since U Been Gone” singer told the outlet, before teasing that her past experience on American Idol is another factor she’s relying on to get contestants over Levine, Shelton, and Keys during Season 14.
“I tried to show them that, obviously, I can navigate a singing competition, because everybody thinks the greatest singer wins but that’s not always the case,” Clarkson added of her techniques.
Kelly’s latest confessions come after she revealed last year that she’s actually going to be a pretty mean judge when The Voice returns to TV screens in February and won’t be going easy on the contestants when it comes to handing out criticism following their performances.
“I hope I’m a little bit like Simon Cowell,” Clarkson told Variety back in October when asked about her coaching style for the upcoming round of shows. “This is not a nice industry. People think I am going to be super nice all the time. I am nice. But I also want to keep it real.”
Kelly later revealed in a separate interview with Redbook magazine that she has no plans to actually try to win the competition and would actually rather have a contestant on her team who has a successful career after the show ends – something The Voice has largely failed to do during its what will soon be 14 seasons on air.
“I’ve already warned both Adam and Blake that winning is not my biggest concern,” Clarkson admitted last year, adding that she’s really more concerned about finding a true star than coming out on top.
The Voice Season 14 will premiere on NBC on February 26 with a two-hour special episode.