8 Brutally Honest Divorce Lyrics From Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘Rolling Up the Welcome Mat’ EP

Kelsea Ballerini pulls back the curtain on an intimate personal journey in Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, a six-song EP that she announced on Monday (Feb. 13) just hours before dropping the project.

Listeners hoping for insights into the singer's 2022 divorce from fellow artist Morgan Evans won't be disappointed: The collection is presented as a chronological move through a breakup, from the early stages of realizing a relationship isn't going to work to its final chapter of acceptance.

These songs contain some of the most cuttingly honest, specific and true-to-life songwriting that Ballerini has ever released, and much of the project is music she wrote solo.

"It was nice to trust myself again," she explains.

"The only way I've been able to handle my life since I was 12 was to write about it," the singer elaborates. "Ironically, I started writing music because my parents got divorced; that was my therapy. Rolling Up the Welcome Mat was how I processed everything. It's the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which was the purest way I could have handled it."

The EP — and an accompanying short film, which provides a visual component to all six songs, in order — is a powerful personal statement, which offers listeners a look into Ballerini's real-life heartbreak and delivers her most authentic lyrics yet.

"I wasn't worried about anything except presenting the songs as honestly as possible," the singer says. "Most of them started with me and my guitar."

Read on for a deep-dive into Ballerini's Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP, and an examination of the most tellingly honest words in the collection.