Kelsea Ballerini Says She and Husband Morgan Evans Are "Pretty Brutal" With Creative Feedback
Kelsea Ballerini and her husband Morgan Evans share many things – but songwriting ideas aren't one of them.
Ballerini recently made her late-night television debut and told Chelsea Handler, who was sitting in for Jimmy Kimmel on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that because they write songs for work, they don't want to spend their off time chatting about rhyme schemes.
"Because we do the same thing all the time, so we already bring it home," Ballerini said. "Imagine then coming home, and you're like, 'Hey, like this hook? You wanna write it?' It's just too much."
But she says that she and Evans "show each other everything" when it comes to their work. She just makes sure that she knows she's going to record it – even if he hates it – before she plays it for him.
"We're pretty brutal," she says. "I think you have to have that with anyone in your inner circle," she reflects. "You need that brutal honesty to know if it's good or not."
And Morgan isn't the only one who tells her like it is when it comes to her music. She says her mom and her friends don't shield her feelings, either.
"It's pretty honest all the time," she says. "I have a really small, amazing, epic group of best, best girlfriends, and they are so unimpressed with me all the time," she says. "That's good. It keeps me as normal as I can be."
Ballerini is gearing up to share much new music with her fans. The singer, who helped host the CMT Music Awards in April, recently released her new single, "Heartfirst." She's about to share its video and said last week on Instagram that her fourth studio album is finished.
"drove the PCH and listened to the final mixes of my album today, and now i am going to eat copious amounts of sushi and drown in gratitude for this new little chapter we get to share together so soon 🌊🤍✨" she wrote.
In April, and described "Heartfirst" as a "bop" and told ABC Audio that it sets the tone for the entire project.
"Sonically, that is the direction of the record," Ballerini said. "So I'm excited to see what people think."
For album four, she changed things up and is working with producers and prolific hit songwriters Shane McAnally and Julian Bunetta.
"I just really wanted to zoom in and find something special and different and finesse it," she said.
