Kelly Clarkson wants to spread some sweetness in the new year.
To kick off the Wednesday (Jan. 4) episode of her namesake talk show, the singer serenaded the audience with a soulful rendition of Blake Shelton‘s 2011 hit “Honey Bee.”
Accompanied by her band Y’all, the “Since U Been Gone” singer was surrounded by honey-colored stage lights and injected the song by her fellow Voice coach with an appropriate country twang. “You’ll be my soft and sweet/ I’ll be your strong and steady/ You’ll be my glass of wine/ I’ll be your shot of whiskey/ You’ll be my sunny day/ I’ll be your shade tree/ You’ll be my honeysuckle/ I’ll be your honey bee,” she passionately sang.
“Honey Bee” was released as the lead single from Shelton’s sixth studio album, Red River Blue. The country track peaked at No. 13 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts.
Later on in the show, Clarkson invited fellow American Idol alum Justin Guarini to share special memories from his time on the show.
“It’s wild because we got shot out of the cannon, but I just loved being around and the fact that we were at the beginning of things, nobody knew what was up,” he reflected. “The stakes weren’t super high for us. We got to hang out so much.”
“If you ever have the chance to see Kelly and she says, ‘Hey, do you want to play a card game?’ Don’t,” he later advised actress Alexandra Daddario, also a guest on the show. “We would hang out and we would play speed because there were huge swaths of time, and I think I may have won twice in the hundreds of time that we played together.”
“I feel like I have natural caffeine in me, so it was really my game,” Clarkson added, to which Guarini said, “It was ridiculous! I just kept coming back for more.”
Watch Clarkson’s cover of “Honey Bee” in the video above.
