Kelsea Ballerini shares how her mother reacted to her new song ‘Sorry Mom’

Kelsea Ballerini’s mom, Carla Denham, had a beautiful reaction to her daughter’s new song.

In “Sorry Mom,” Ballerini apologizes for some of the things she’s done in her life that might’ve made her mom cringe, like coming home smelling like cigarettes or missing her birthday.

“Maybe I ran all the red lights/ Maybe we got into a few fights/ It’s a different cloth we cut/ But underneath, we’re the same blood,” she sings. “So I know it took a little tough love/ To become the woman that you’re proud of.”

While speaking to Willie Geist on the Oct. 27 edition of Sunday Sitdown, Ballerini said her changing relationship with her mom is “one of the most beautiful things” that’s happened to her in the last few years.

The “Penthouse” singer explained that she and her mom went from “mother to daughter, to woman to woman.”

“Like, she was a helicopter mom growing up, and now we’re finally at this phase where I’m 31 now, and we’re in this beautiful phase of life where I’m able to be like, ‘Hey, listen, I know that you probably wanted to shield me from a couple of the choices that I’ve made in my life. But at the end of the day I’m safe and I’m happy and you love me and I love you,'” she says. “And that’s all we can ask for.”

Ballerini said her mom’s reaction to the song was sincere and heartfelt.

“She got done listening to it, and she said, ‘She has nothing to be sorry for,’ which I think is very sweet,” Ballerini recalled.

On Instagram, Ballerini said “Sorry Mom” is “one of the first songs” she wrote for her new album, “Patterns.”

She told Willie that the album is about growing up into an adult.

“I think I’m really interested in womanhood and growing up,” she said. “I think that’s been a big theme in my life and, like, my personal kind of findings and growing up the last few years. And it’s certainly a pattern of this album.”

Ballerini’s album “Patterns” dropped Oct. 25.