Kelsea Ballerini shares the professional advice she received from Taylor Swift

Kelsea Ballerini has had artists like Taylor Swift to look to for advice during her rise as a country music star.

During , the 31-year-old singer remembered the advice she sought from Swift while she was going through a difficult period of her career.

Ballerini shared, “I remember I asked her, I was like, ‘You know, I’m a girl on an independent label. So this is proving to be a little difficult for me.’”

Swift’s advice?

“She was like, ‘You have to become undeniable. Whatever that means to you, whatever that looks like for you. Then no one can tell you no, because what is 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 labels.

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

Despite the comparison early on in her career, to 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 when the duo were seated next to one another.

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

During an Oct. 24 appearance on “,” the “Cowboys Cry Too” singer shared that she and Swift “talk every now and again.”

“Really, it’s just when I’m like ‘Oh my god, you added ‘Down Bad’ to the set list, this is amazing!’ Normally it’s just me fangirling, which is per usual,” she said. “It’s really beautiful to have artists that you can have those touch points with and just check in with and make sure that everything’s good. They’re good, you’re good.”

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

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

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

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