Kelly Rowland works through plenty of personal issues in her new hit "Dirty Laundry," but one thing she never had to worry about was her relationship with her Destiny's Child band mate Beyonce.
In a recent interview with Washington radio station 93.9 WKYS, the 32-year-old singer explained that she had both Beyonce and Michelle Williams listen to her emotional tune before she released it — and their reactions were positive.
"[Beyonce] was just like, 'I never left," Rowland said of Bey's response to her candid lyrics. "Which was so sweet. It was endearing. She heard how real I was and she was just like 'I'm so proud of you.'"
The powerful ballad touches upon Rowland's past relationships with abusive boyfriends and her struggle with jealousy over Beyonce's success.
"When my sister was on stage/ Killing it like a motherf–ker/ I was in rage/ Feeling it like a motherf–ker," she sings on the track. "Bird in a cafe/ You'd never know what I was dealing with/ Went our separate ways but I was happy she was killin' it/ Bittersweet, she was up, I was down/ No lie, I feel good for her but what do I do now?"
The singer added that despite going through some very difficult times after the girl group's breakup in 2006, she is forever thankful for the trio's enduring friendship.
"What matters to me most is what we have," she said. "I'm so grateful for what we have as sisters … away from Destiny's Child."
Still, even with the distance of time, the song's raw emotions can get the best of her. On Sunday, May 26, Rowland was in the middle of performing the song during a show in Washington D.C. when she broke down onstage, unable to go on.
"It's really weird when you take yourself in front of a crowd," she told the radio station. "Even in that moment of when I put my feet up, I felt like I was in therapy. I was singing and talking about what happened, and for a moment, it was like that crowd wasn't even there. And then when the music stopped … I was like 'You are live, Kel. Calm down.'"
"And I had to calm down, and then I had to breathe," she continued. "You get lost … and it's nothing wrong with getting lost. But that was weird. I felt like I could do that with D.C."
She later addressed the audience and thanked them for their support. "Doing this song for me was so therapeutic," she told the crowd. "Honesty, like my mama always says, is always the best policy."
