Kelsea Ballerini was devastated when the coronavirus pandemic shut the world down in March of 2020, and with good reason. The Tennessee native released her third studio album, Kelsea, on March 20 of that year, with plans of embarking on what was supposed to be her biggest tour to date, when all of those plans, as well as promotion for the record, were suddenly canceled.

“The week after the world shut down, so late March, early April 2020, I put a record out.,” Ballerini tells Audacy‘s 103.7 KSON. “It was just the worst timing for an album release. The world was scared, and we were all as musicians trying to figure out, how do we keep our band on salary? All those big questions. And this project that I worked on for two years, that I loved so much, just got swallowed. And I was grieving it, to be honest.”

By her own admission, Ballerini was feeling despondent and heartbroken over the sudden disruption of plans, but had a change of heart after getting an unexpected phone call from Brad Paisley.

“Brad Paisley called me,” Ballerini recounts. “And he was just like, ‘Hey, I watched what happened with the timing of this, and I’m just checking on you.’ I was like, ‘Man, I feel a little bit numb. I don’t know how to process this.’ He said, ‘Listen, as this all unravels however it’s going to, you’re going to see people firehose, and you’re going to see people go into drought. All you need to do is just keep watering the grass.’

“It was just such good advice, and you can apply it to quite literally anything in life,” she continues. “Consistency and trusting the process, and believing in what you believe in, and knowing that the right time is the right time — all of that. It was just such beautiful advice that I go back to often.”

Ballerini has since released her 2022 album, Subject to Change, along with her autobiographical EP, Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, about her split from Morgan Evans. With all of her music, the 29-year-old wants to be authentic and honest, even if her music doesn’t necessarily stay within the lines of country music.

“I want to play arenas,” Ballerini tells the New York Times, “I want to be the main draw. I want the pyrotechnics. I want to cross over, dare I say.”

Ballerini is currently serving as the opening act for  Kenny Chesney‘s  I Go Back Tour. Find music and tour dates at KelseaBallerini.com.