‘The Voice’ Coach Kelly Clarkson Reveals Why ‘Winning Doesn’t Matter’

Kelly Clarkson is joining Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and John Legend on the current season of The Voice, where she has won the last two seasons, with both Brynn Cartelli in Season 14 and Chevel Shepherd in Season 15.

As Clarkson continues to coach her team on Season 16, she wants one of her teammates to be crowned the champion, even though she insists that is far from the most important part of the show.

“I’m a hundred percent honest,” Clarkson told The Tennessean. “I always say, ‘Even if you win this show’ — and Brynn and Chevel ended up winning — but even before they won, I was like, ‘[Winning] doesn’t matter. You have to work.

“I know plenty of people that have won shows,” she added with a laugh.

Clarkson certainly knows a thing or two about winning reality TV talent shows. The singer won the first season of American Idol in 2002, kicking off an award-winning career that shows no signs of slowing down. Still, the 36-year-old says American Idol was only her launching pad, with the rest of her success being attributed to her own hard work.

“I mean, I won Idol and people thought overnight I was some kind of millionaire or something,” Clarkson acknolwedged. “And that was not the case. Everybody was plugging in our gear on stage, and we were playing state fairs, small clubs. We did that because you have to. It is a blessing to be on a show with that many viewers, and it is definitely an advantage, but it does not negate the fact that there is a lot of hard work coming.”

In addition to being on The Voice, Clarkson is also crossing the country on her headlining Meaning of Life Tour, with Kelsea Ballerini and Cartelli serving as her opening acts. Although the tour will soon wrap, Clarkson won’t get much of a break. Her long-awaited talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, will launch this fall on NBC. For the show, Clarkson draws inspiration from Miranda Lambert‘s “The House That Built Me,” admitting that’s a sentiment she has never fully experienced.

“I never really had that,” Clarkson conceded. “I really want to create [something] where people feel like, even if they didn’t have that, there’s a least a place you can go, a place you can watch. I do dream pretty big with the show in that sense.”

“Obviously, it’ll be fun, too, and I’ll be very self-deprecating,” she continued. “We’ll do skits, I’m sure, and there’s a lot of music involved. But I do want to focus a lot on togetherness and bringing people back together again. I feel like it’s been a really rough couple of years, regardless of what you believe and whatever side you’re on. It’s been pretty rough. That’s the one thing that keeps me going, not being able to be based in Nashville or Texas. It’s a positive change I’ll be able to be a part of.”

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jeff Kravitz