Kelsea Ballerini shares Taylor Swift’s pro advice

Kelsea Ballerini has looked to artists like Taylor Swift for advice during her rise to country music stardom.

During her Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist on Oct. 27, the 31-year-old singer recalled the advice she sought from Swift while going through a difficult period in her career.

Ballerini shared, “I remember asking her, I was like, ‘You know, I’m an independent label girl. So this has turned out to be a little difficult for me.'”

Swift’s advice?

“She was like, ‘You have to become undeniable. Whatever it means to you, whatever it looks like to you. Then nobody can say no to you, because what’s no? You just, you pivot. Pivot, you know?’ ” Ballerini recalled.

During her conversation with Willie, Ballerini also took a look back at the beginning of her career as a teenager in Nashville, dealing with harsh critics at record companies.

“My first experience ever, it was on an independent label that doesn’t exist anymore and I went in and played a song that I had written myself and he looked at me and said ‘Well there’s already a Taylor Swift ,’ ‘” she said.

Despite the comparison early in her career, Ballerini and Swift have been nothing but supportive of each other over the years, dating back to March 2015, when the “Cruel Summer” singer shared praise for Ballerini’s music on social media.

Since then, Ballerini has continued to support Swift, including at the 2024 Grammy Awards, where the duo sat next to each other.

As she’s been promoting her new album “Patterns,” Ballerini has also opened up about how she and Swift have stayed in touch and how the singer has continued to influence her into adulthood.

During an appearance on October 24 at “Taste country nights,” the “Cowboys Cry Too” singer shared that she and Swift “talk now and again.”

“Really, it’s just when I’m like ‘Oh my god, you added ‘Down Bad’ to the set list, that’s great!’ Usually it’s just me fangirling, which is normal,” she said. “It’s really nice to have those points of contact and just check in with them good, you are good.”

Ballerini also shared how Swift’s bold decisions in her songwriting also helped usher in a new era for her own music.

“While ‘Love You Like You Mean It’ and ‘Dibs’ were being played on country radio, they were also on Radio Disney, so I was really — not meant in it — but protective of it,” she explained. “I’m 31, you know, and then I think, especially with (‘Rolling Up the Welcome Mat’), I was like, ‘I’m just going to write like I talk.'”

The singer continued, adding: “And speaking of Taylor… I think when she started cursing on her records, I think she kind of gave everybody permission to just write the way they talk and write the full truth.”