Kelly Clarkson Enlists Steve Martin On New Song “I Hate Love”

These days we often post about Kelly Clarkson covering unexpected songs on her daytime talk show, or we revisit her chart-topping hits in our Number Ones series. Today we turn our attention to a new Clarkson original.

Clarkson’s new studio album Chemistry is coming next month, and today it has yielded a collaboration with the legendary actor-comedian Steve Martin, who has experience hanging with much younger pop stars via Only Murders In The Building. Martin’s banjo skills are well-known, and he deploys them on “I Hate Love,” a new Clarkson song about romantic foibles that also name-checks Martin and Ryan Gosling. (“I hate love in the Notebook light/ It’s complicated is more like what happened, so you can keep Gosling and I’ll keep Steve Martin.”)

It’s a hyper-processed, radio-friendly pop song that just happens to feature some sick banjo work. Listen below.

Chemistry is out 6/23 on Atlantic.