Nearly one year after filing for divorce from Morgan Evans, Kelsea Ballerini has updated her breakup EP with new eyebrow-raising lyrics.
The 29-year-old singer released Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) on Friday, August 11, giving her fans a place to permanently listen to the tweaked versions of “Penthouse” and “Blindsided,” which she has been performing live for months. She also shares new insight into the aftermath of her split via “Interlude (Full Length),” a song that was previously only 45 seconds long.
“Kinda scary opening a wound that time had mended / But everyone wanted the ‘Interlude’ to be extended / Guess I gotta send it,” she begins in the new section.
And “send it” she does. “I got drunk, and you meditated / Said I’d get it one day with age / Guess it got your ego inflated,” she sings. “Wasn’t supposed to be a takedown / But which side are you gonna take now?”
Ballerini and Evans have been taking digs at each other via their music since their split in August 2022. In “Interlude (Full Length),” she admits that they both “turned goodbye to a game to a hobby.”
“You collected bones, but I buried the bodies / All this back and forth,” she sings before potentially making a nod to Evans’ track “Tequila Man” sounding eerily similar to her “Leave Me Again” ballad. “Well, it’s feeling pretty sloppy / Paste, copy.”
Ballerini and Evans have unfollowed each other via social media and haven’t crossed paths as they each continue to live in Nashville. “I wonder what we’ll both say / When we see each other ’round town / We said we’d handle this the right way / I guess we’ve done each other wrong now,” she sings.
While Ballerini has not publicly commented on reports that she had an affair back in 2019 when she and Evans were on the rocks, she hints at secrets in their marriage. “I hope you sleep better at night now that you got an army / Of people that believe I’m the word that you used to call me / Needed to be the angel for someone that doesn’t, Jesus / I told you mine, so when location died, what was your secret?” she sings.
Ballerini’s rerelease ends with a new track, “How Do I Do This,” which she previously told Us Weekly was about “the first date after” a breakup.
“They say to get out with the old, you get in with the new / And I haven’t been on a date since I was 22,” the song begins. “My friend has a friend and they say they’re my type / And then they texted me once / And then they texted me twice / Saying, ‘Are you free Saturday? I know a spot’ / So, I typed out a couple million ways to respond / But I landed with ‘Yes’ / S—t, so where the hell is my dress?”
Ballerini sings about being “scared of looking stupid” as she works through her nerves ahead of the date. “Said I, I’m ready, now I gotta prove it / Got a little black dress, I wanna use it,” the chorus reads. “And maybe lose it / On a floor that ain’t mine.”
At the end of the track, Ballerini makes a reference to “calling Kelly for a talk,” and some fans believe she’s referring to Kelly Clarkson, who went through her own public divorce from Brandon Blackstock. The two artists have been friends for years, teaming up alongside Carly Pearce on “You’re Drunk, Go Home” in 2022.
“Like, is it wrong to take a shot? / I’m freaking out like ‘Oh, my God’ / ‘Cause now it’s 7:00 on the dot,” Ballerini sings.
Ballerini previously confirmed that she spoke to Clarkson and Pearce (who ended her eight-month marriage to Michael Ray in 2020) about their respective breakups. “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,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “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.”
After getting over her first date jitters, the Grammy nominee went public with Chase Stokes earlier this year. The twosome met after she slid into his DMs because her manager thought they’d be a good match. Her new track begins with the sounds of typing and sending a text.
“It’s about the nerves of going into a very unknown world,” Ballerini told Us earlier this month. “And, to me, I felt like since I hadn’t really gotten to share my story in my perspective on what had happened in my life yet, that needed to come second. That is part two. I felt like I really wanted to talk about, you know, the breakup, and let that kind of live in one piece. And then if I ever decided to do what we’re doing now — Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) — then that would be kind of the extension of the story. And especially now, I’ve been in a new relationship for a while now, and people have seen that. So I feel like it’s a really appropriate time to catch everyone up and to be able to move the narrative from the past to the present.”
Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) is out now.
