Kelly Clarkson Reveals The Sad Meaning Behind “Piece By Piece”

Kelly Clarkson's "Piece by Piece" may bring tears to your eyes even if you don't know what it's about. But hearing the singer talk about the personal experiences that lie beneath the lyrics makes it all the harder to hear without getting emotional. The former American Idol star recently revealed that the track was inspired by her husband's constant love for their 20-month-old daughter, River Rose — compared with the lack of attention and care Clarkson received from her own father. "Watching my husband love on his daughter all the time, you know, go to her events and just be there and, like, be present is, like, hard to watch but beautiful to watch,” the singer told Ryan Seacrest during a radio interview. “I know that my kids are going to have that." What's so sad is that Clarkson didn't have that herself. "I don't even think I understood the gravity of [my relationship with my father] until I was pregnant [with River Rose]," she went on. "I was like, 'I cannot imagine not seeing this kid to his or her full potential and just seeing what she's going to do, what she's going to be like.'" But despite how painful it can be to perform the song, Clarkson also said that she's done carrying around anger toward her father about the past. "I'm 33 years old, I'm a grown woman," she said. "But it's more of that thing where you can try your hardest to salvage relationships — and I did — but at the end of the day, if you keep getting hurt by someone because they just don't know how to properly love people, it's just not worth it. It's not worth the strain in your heart and it starts to bleed into your other relationships and it becomes super dysfunctional.” Watch Clarkson's emotional performance of "Piece by Piece" on American Idol in the video below.