Kelly Clarkson Told Jason Aldean a Big Lie After Performing Together at the Grammy Awards

In 2010, Jason Aldean released the duet, “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson. The song, from Aldean’s fourth album, My Kinda Party, became a monster crossover hit, in both country and pop, earning the pair a CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year, as well as a Grammy nomination, for Country Duo/Group Performance.

Aldean and Clarkson performed the song on stage during the 2012 Grammys. Now, more than seven years later, Clarkson finally confessed she told Aldean a lie right after their performance, which he believed until she came clean while chatting with him on her own The Kelly Clarkson Show.

“It was my first time performing on the Grammys,” Aldean recalled. “We’re singing this song that had been a huge hit for us. We’re singing it, and I look over, and Kelly has a tear coming out of her eye. I’m like, ‘Man I must be really singing this song really well. I mean, this is an emotional thing. It’s hitting her hard.’ And as soon as we get off stage, she goes, ‘I had something in my eye the whole time we were singing.’ Just completely wiped me out.”

The American Idol alum followed that up by admitting Aldean the secret she had been keeping all of these years.

“Here’s the thing. I’m owning this now. I totally lied,” Clarkson conceded. “I didn’t want you to think I was a freak or a weirdo. I totally lied. I cry, I get all the feels when I’m singing. I was really crying, and I totally lied, and was like, ‘There was something in my eyes, allergies or something.’ I totally lied.”

Aldean credits Clarkson with making that song the success it was, even though they never even met until she went into the studio with him to record it.

“My producer and I were talking about who we wanted to get to sing on the song, and Kelly was the first person that I thought of. I never met her, I was just a huge fan of her voice. And so, we had never met until the day we were in the studio. You were recording the song. I sat there and I had all these notes. ‘Okay, we’re going to get her to sing this part and that part.’

“We went in and she just started warming up and sang the song a couple times,” he continued. “After she sang, I just took my notes and threw them in the trash. I wasn’t going to tell you I had any notes after I heard you sing. I was like, ‘This is going to be really good.’”

Photo Credit: Getty / Kevin Winter