Kelsea Ballerini Says the Emotional ‘Blindsided’ Voice Recording Is ‘Real’ [Watch]

The emotionally fraught spoken words included in Kelsea Ballerini's song "Blindsided" comes from a real conversation, the singer revealed at an early-August Rolling Up the Welcome Mat fan event held at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

During a fan Q&A, one event attendee asked Ballerini about the backstory behind the dialogue snippet. Laid into the bridge of "Blindsided," the audio clip is of a woman — presumably Ballerini — saying "It's not fu--ing news to you, babe. You've been in this relationship. It's not news," her voice tense with emotion.

From the stage, the singer admitted that this was a question she'd never answered publicly before. In fact, she'd deliberately avoided it in interviews surrounding her Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP release.

"This was a no-fly question on all of the interviews I've done," she says, before taking a long paused as she figured out the best way to answer.

"Well, it's real. That's all I'll tell you. It's real," she continues, admitting that even talking about the clip that much was a little "scary."

During the fan event, Ballerini announced the release of Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good), an extended version of the original EP that incorporates the lyric changes she made to the songs while performing them live during her Heartfirst Tour and extending one of the tracks, "Interlude."

The new version of the project will also feature an additional song, "How Do I Do This," that Ballerini says will bring her story of heartbreak and healing up to date.

Released in February, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat tells the story of Ballerini's 2022 divorce from her fellow country star husband Morgan Evans.