Kelly Clarkson took on Trisha Yearwood during The Kelly Clarkson Show this week, performing Yearwood’s hit “Walkaway Joe” for her “Kellyoke” segment. Clarkson performed the song at the request of Matthew McConaughey, who played the titular Walkaway Joe in Yearwood’s music video back in 1992.
“Walkaway Joe” was written by Vince Melamed and Greg Barnhill and recorded by Yearwood with the Eagles’ Don Henley and reached No. 2 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart in 1993. Clarkson’s cover allowed her voice to take center stage as she delivered the story of a 17-year-old girl who wanted a relationship with an uninterested man, who was dubbed Walkaway Joe.
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After her performance, McConaughey, who was a guest on the show, recalled working on the video, sharing that it was his “first time in front of the camera.” “In early 1992, I’m going to college here at the University of Texas — this is before [1993’s] Dazed and Confused — and I was trying to get odd jobs in front of the camera when I could. And I got cast in that music video to play Joe,” he said. “Things are going well. And then where we end up at the last stop, she wakes up and Joe, myself, is nowhere to be seen, therefore, aka the title ‘Walkaway Joe.’” McConaughey added that 28 years later, he still hasn’t met Yearwood in person.
Clarkson shared that she is a particular fan of ’90s country music videos for their detailed storylines. “There would be such a story, like a plot,” she said. “They would have actors, real big actors in there. I think that was amazing.”
The Texas native is currently in the process of writing songs of her own for her upcoming album and has written around 60 songs amid her divorce from Brandon Blackstock. “I have this record that we’re working on. It’s really great and really honest,” Clarkson told Entertainment Tonight. “There’s just a lot of questions that I have to answer before releasing it for myself, you know? Whether that be business-wise or personally or whatever. Whatever happens though, it is such a gift. Like, I don’t know how anybody, I’ll just be real with you, goes through grief like divorce, any kind of grief, any kind of loss, without having an outlet like this.”
“I have written like 60 songs, it is an insane amount of getting it out. I think that’s a blessing in itself,” she continued. “Anytime you go through some life, it’s such an awesome thing to have that outlet, regardless of whether people hear it or not.”
