Celebrity Mound

Kelly Clarkson has done a lot of talking about reports of a feud with Clive Davis over the direction of her new album, “My December.” Now, she’s apologizing.

“I want to set the record straight on this by saying that I want my band, my advisors, those close to me and my record label to be one big, tightly knit family,” the 25-year-old singer said Monday in a statement posted on her Web site.

“Like any family we will disagree and argue sometimes but, in the end, it’s respect and admiration that will keep us together.”

For months, Clarkson has weathered – and also fueled in candid interviews – reports of a battle with Davis, who oversees her record label, RCA, over the direction of “My December,” which was released June 26.

“A lot has been made in the press about my relationship with Clive,” the former “American Idol” said in her statement. “Much of this has been blown way out of proportion and out of context.”

“Contrary to recent characterizations in the press, I’m well aware that Clive is one of the great record men of all time,” her statement said. “He has been a key advisor and has been an important force in my success to date.”

Clarkson, who co-wrote every track on “My December,” gives Davis kudos for releasing the album when he wasn’t obligated to do so.

“I really regret how this has turned out and I apologize to those whom I have done disservice,” she said. “I would never intentionally hurt anyone. I love music, and I love the people I am blessed to work with.”

A spokesperson for Davis didn’t immediately respond Monday to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

“My December” – which has yet to produce a hit single – is No. 5 on Billboard’s 200 top albums chart; it arrived at No. 2.

Clarkson’s first album, 2003’s “Thankful,” sold over more than 1 million copies. The multiplatinum “Breakaway,” released in 2004, cemented her status as a bona fide artist outside of “Idol” with hits including “Since U Been Gone” and “Because of You.”

While the fight between singer Kelly Clarkson and record mogul Clive Davis has been spilling into the press, Clarkson has been quite muzzled speaking directly about it — until now.

In the new August issue of Blender, which goes on sale next Tuesday, Kelly really lets Davis have it and she does not mince words. I’ve attached the cover of the new Blender.

Clarkson recalls telling Davis: “I don’t know you very well, and I am not a bullshitter. I get you don’t like the album. You’re 80; you’re not supposed to like my album.”

She continues laying it on to her record company: “I literally got told to my face that it wouldn’t sell more than 600,000 copies. And I got lied to. One reason I don’t like working with people at the label is that they lie. They told me, ‘We really want you to go to Sweden. Those people really want to write with you.’ So I flew to Sweden with lyrics I’d written to this track I’d been sent, ‘Since U Been Gone.’ I get there, and the writers are like, ‘Oh, we already have the lyrics. We just want you to sing it.’ It was really awkward. It was mean. That’s why there’s no relationship with them. Because I don’t like being lied to.

“I can’t stand it when people put out the same record over and over again. It’s annoying. If you’re going with the flow and not fighting, that’s settling. I can’t take that. Life is just too short to be a pushover.”

(courtesy of Four-Corners Communications)

Note to music industry legend Clive Davis: Stop trashing Kelly Clarkson – you are making yourself look bad.

“Clive is furious because Kelly has assumed total artistic control over her new album and refuses his suggestions,” according to an insider at Sony BMG, the parent of Clarkson’s label, RCA.

Davis, who runs Sony BMG, slammed Clarkson at a company retreat in April, saying she can’t produce hits.

And music industry insiders were dumbfounded when Davis took the stage during the “American Idol” finale to plug Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee’s new singles, but failed to mention Clarkson’s third album, “My December,” which debuts in June. Instead, Davis promoted the songwriters for one of Clarkson’s hits, “Since U Been Gone.”

Our insider said, “She wrote all of the second album herself – including the hits ‘Because of You,’ ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’ and ‘Walk Away.’ Clive hated ‘Because of You’ so much, he would routinely mock it in meetings. It was one of her most successful singles.”

Clarkson is not only one of Sony BMG’s most profitable artists, having sold close to 15 million albums – she is also not a diva.

She hasn’t demanded to renegotiate her deal with the label, our source said, even though “she only gets like $250,000 an album when she could get millions. She refuses to take more money because she wants artistic control. And she has always turned out to be right. If Clive had had his way, she wouldn’t have sold nearly as many albums as she did.

“We are appalled he is picking apart one of our own acts – and one that we all love.”

The source added, “Kelly wanted to make a deeply personal record. Here’s an artist who didn’t demand more money, who handed in her record on time in January, after making him millions, and now he rips her? The music business is collapsing, and this is why. They won’t let people put out their real music. This is about his huge ego.”

But a Davis pal said, “Clive gave her ‘Hazel Eyes’ and ‘Walk Away’ and he gave her the production company to help make ‘Because of You’ a hit. We pay millions for the albums. This is incorrect.”

Clarkson’s rep didn’t return calls, and Davis’ rep declined comment.

(source)