Kelsea Ballerini reflects on flaws, poor decisions + growth in “Sorry Mom”

Courtesy of Patrick Tracy + Black River Entertainment

Kelsea Ballerini gets candid in her musical apology letter, “Sorry Mom.”

Out now, the reflective track finds Kelsea detailing the numerous times she’s disappointed her mom, made bad decisions, grown through life experiences and become the woman her mother’s proud of.

Kelsea sings in a verse, “Sorry, Mom, you know that I had sex/ ‘Fore I bought the white dress/ I know you’re not impressed/ With my lack of stickin’ to the Bible/ Yeah, I got regrets/ But you did your best.”

The chorus offers a more optimistic look at her life and who she’s grown to be.

“I turned out alright/ So you can sleep good at night/ Maybe I ran all the red lights/ Maybe we got into a few fights/ It’s a different cloth we cut/ But underneath wе’re the same blood/ So I know it took a littlе tough love/ To become the woman that you’re proud of,” the 30-year-old reflects. 

“It’s all there in ‘Sorry Mom’: chasing dreams, walking away from school, losing my virginity, walking away from college. But the best part of the song is – in the fullness of time – I can appreciate how she felt about all of it, I can understand why,” shares Kelsea, who co-wrote the song with Little Big Town‘s Karen Fairchild, Hillary LindseyJessie Jo Dillon and Alysa Vanderheym.

“We can both look back on those times, knowing it was part of the journey, and it’s part of a lot of people’s journeys. … But when you look at everything that happened, it turned out pretty well,” she continues in her press statement. “To me, that’s what you can’t know ’til you’re here.”

“Sorry Mom” and the Noah Kahan-assisted “Cowboys Cry Too” preview Kelsea’s forthcoming new album, Patterns, which arrives Oct. 25 and is available for preorder and presave now.

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