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Kelsea Ballerini recently opened up about her divorce and healing process via her 6-track EP and accompanying short film, Rolling Up The Welcome Mat. Her mother, Carla Denham, “just bawled” as she listened to her daughter’s lyrics for the first time.
Denham spoke about her relationship with her award-winning daughter on the latest episode of Got It From My Momma, a podcast that features conversations about family, fame, faith and more. Host Jennifer Vickery Smith chats with mothers of fan-favorite entertainers in different episodes, and on Tuesday (February 28), she debuted her conversation with Denham. Smith previously shared on Instagram that the two women recorded the podcast episode shortly after Ballerini’s release of Rolling Up The Welcome Mat.
“As she was sending me those songs as she’d write them, my heart would just — I mean, I would just bawl. Just bawl,” Denham remembered of her daughter’s EP. “And the songs were hard enough, you know, to listen to, but I also know it’s cathartic for her. That’s her way of processing hurt and pain…to go write it and then it’s out of her. I’ve seen that time and time again.
“When she decided to do the mini film… if she would’ve hired an actress to do that, it still would’ve hurt for me to watch it,” Denham added. “But to watch her acting out what she really felt and experienced was just — it’s that blend between, ‘I’m in total awe,’ when she showed me the piece, ‘total awe,’ and, ‘I just wanna take her and put her in a plastic bubble and just go, away somewhere, away from the world.’”
Denham noted her daughter’s “vulnerability” in Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, and seeing “real pain on her face” as she watches the heartbreaking short film: “She’s fiercely independent and strong-willed.”
Ballerini has often heard from her mom, “remember who you are.” Now that she’s in the music industry, Denham said she adds, “remember why you’re doing this.” That includes Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, which Denham knew would impact women of all ages: “You were given a gift and you have a purpose with that gift… go back to your purpose. What are you doing with this that’s gonna make a mark on the world?”
Denham also spoke throughout the nearly one-hour episode about Ballerini’s passion for her music, the importance of using her voice, her “magical” transformation and healing through songwriting, the lessons she’s learned over the years and more (Denham even reflected on the moment she received a call about gun violence at her daughter’s high school, which Ballerini opened up about in her book of poetry, Feel Your Way Through).
Smith deemed the podcast conversation with Denham “intriguing, difficult, and so inspirational. Carla and Kelsea are the ultimate mom/daughter duo and ALWAYS find the sunshine after the storm.”