Kelsea Ballerini’s grateful for “real-life conversations” with duet partners Carly Pearce, Kelly Clarkson

ABC/Heidi Gutman

Since putting out her Subject to Change album last month, Kelsea Ballerini has been vocal about how excited she was to enlist her real-life friends — Carly Pearce and Kelly Clarkson — as duet partners on their honky-tonkin’ collab, “You’re Drunk, Go Home.”

The three artists have their music careers in common, but that’s not all: for one thing, they’ve all experienced divorce. Carly and Kelly both announced their divorces in 2020, while Kelsea’s currently in the thick of hers. She broke the news to fans in August that she and husband Morgan Evans were calling it quits.

“I mean, obviously when we were recording [‘You’re Drunk, Go Home’] things were different,” Kelsea told ET Online on the red carpet for this week’s CMT Artists of the Year when asked if their respective divorces were a bonding experience for them.

“Like I said, we’re friends in real life, and the thing about that is you see us when we’re glittery and we’re doing red carpets — but we have real-life conversations,” Kelsea went on to say. “So it’s really nice to be able to have people that are my peers and heroes that I can go to for music advice, and also life advice.”

At the same event, Carly told ET Online that she’s proud to be able to support Kelsea, who was a big part of her support system when she went through her divorce.

“Kelsea was there through mine,” she said. “I’m there for her through hers.”

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