Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire Kept the Party Going at Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert’s Wedding

Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire have a special relationship. Fresh off her win on the inaugural season of American Idol in 2002, Clarkson got to pick one of her idols to share a stage with. She chose McEntire, and the two performed the duet “Does He Love You” from her 1993 compilation album. A decade later, the two women solidified their family bond. Clarkson married Brandon Blackstock, son of McEntire’s then-husband, Narvel Blackstock, in 2013.

Reba and Narvel divorced in 2015, and Kelly and Brandon divorced in 2022. Still, their bond has remained intact—and as Brandi Carlile recently revealed, a karaoke machine hates to see them coming.

Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire Delayed the Post-Reception Shuttle Buses

During an appearance this week on the Las Culturistas podcast, the multi-Grammy Award winner, 44, recalled attending the Texas wedding of country music superstars Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton in 2011.

Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire were also in attendance for the ceremony. Carlile sang the then-couple down the aisle with her 2007 song “The Story”.

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Afterward, “Everybody was getting drunk and singing karaoke, and Kelly Clarkson was there and Reba McEntire was there,” Carlile recalled. “And they started singing together and then they just like, didn’t get off the stage. Like, the party was over and we had to take these shuttle buses back to the hotel, and I remember the whole shuttle bus was waiting for Reba McEntire.”

“They’re So Rad”

As they patiently waited for the “I’m a Survivor” singer, Carlile could hear the two’s harmonies from her seat on the bus.

“I was like, ‘These b—–es are everything everybody hopes they are and no one knows,’” she said. “But now you know. They’re so rad.”

[RELATED: Kelly Clarkson Was Fighting Back Tears Before Singing This Reba McEntire Tribute Cover—by the End, It Was Reba Who Was Crying]

After Kelly Clarkson split from Brandon Blackstock in 2022, Reba McEntire refused to pick sides. “Kelly and I do talk, we text and I love them both, and so I can’t play favorites because I’ve been a friend of Kelly for a long time,” she told Entertainment Tonight. (Brandon Blackstock died last August at age 48 following a three-year battle with melanoma.

Reflecting on their two-decade friendship in April 2023, McEntire, 71, said, “She’s just matured into this wonderful woman that I am just so proud of and I love her with all my heart.” 

The feeling is certainly mutual. “Sometimes when we meet our heroes, it doesn’t always pan out how you hope,” said Clarkson, 44, in 2018. “But meeting Reba — being friends with her, and eventually becoming family — has been one of the highlights of my life, truly.”

Featured image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images