Do Not Ask Kelly Clarkson To Baby-Sit Your Children

Once and future "American Idol" queen Kelly Clarkson releases "All I Ever Wanted," her fourth CD, this week. She spoke with NEWSWEEK's Ramin Setoodeh.

Did you always know you were going to write half your songs on this album?
I've written different on every album. I think it's cool for fans to hear something straight from your head, and your heart.

One song, "I Do Not Hook Up," is written by Katy Perry.
I met her, like, a couple years ago, and it was before "I Kissed a Girl" blew up. I liked her writing. It was really unique.

Where do you normally write your songs?
Not in a normal place. I kind of write all over. I was just on a plane—oh, heck, where was I?—I was in Switzerland. I just started writing a song on a plane. I'm sometimes in my house in Texas, and I'll write something. Or I could be in a bar. I write everywhere.

You really sit in a bar and write?
There's a song called "Chivas" on my last album, the fans love it, I have to perform it everywhere or they'll yell at me.

Do you take paper with you?
No, I actually wrote that song on a napkin. The best part is, I came home and I kept trying to remember the melody; I was pretty inebriated, and I sang it into my Mac computer. Listening to the song the next day was pretty funny.

Before you called, I was watching your first "Idol" audition.
That's embarrassing.

Why?
That was seven years ago. I probably was not that awesome.

You feel you're that different?
What's funny, people will say that to me. "We interviewed you right after 'Idol'; you're pretty much the same." I'm like, yep. I don't want to live in a sceney place. I live in Texas, right next to the town I grew up in. I genuinely just love doing music. I'm not really excited about the whole famous thing.

Would you have auditioned for the show if you didn't try out that first season?
Oh, definitely. What's funny is, our season was different than anybody else's. We didn't know it was a TV show until the third audition. We didn't know what we were getting into.

What did you think it was?
I just thought it was an audition. And they said you get paid. I was like, "Man, I need electricity, so I will do it."