‘Sorry Mom’ by Kelsea Ballerini - Lyrics & Meaning

In early August, Kelsea Ballerini followed up her star-studded collaboration with folk trailblazer, Noah Kahan, ‘Cowboys Cry Too’, with the announcement of her fifth studio album, Patterns. The highly anticipated record is set to arrive on October 25th, 2024.

To celebrate the exciting news, the ‘half of my hometown’ hitmaker revealed she'd be releasing the second single from the project, ’Sorry Mom’, on Friday, August 9th.

The vulnerable, soul-baring track finds Kelsea Ballerini listing all the ways in which she fears she's disappointed her mother over the years, before toasting the strength of their relationship today. Eagled-eyed fans will notice how Kelsea flips the lyrics in the final chorus (“I met a guy that we both like / And I got a house with a porch light”).

The gradual progression of ‘Sorry Mom’ mirrors the evolution of Kelsea Ballerini's relationship with her mother, Carla. The track begins with a tentative, undulating acoustic guitar, before ‘Sorry Mom’ picks up pace with the introduction of a pop-infused drum pattern, which create a more energetic, jubilant ambience. Kelsea Ballerini's vocals are sleek and charismatic, with the composition nimbly walking a line between the sparse, brooding and R&B-tinted Rolling Up The Welcome Mat and the sunnier, joyful and country-leaning SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

“Sorry, Mom, I smelled like cigarettes
And my eyes were Casa red, with a pounding in my head
Showing up again on Sunday morning
You just made the eggs and turned your head”

‘Sorry Mom’ is part-confessional, part-tribute to her mother's continuing influence on her life. Kelsea Ballerini looks back and apologises for the times she walked in on Sunday mornings severely hungover and having smoked the night before.

The powerful image of Kelsea's eyes being ‘Casa red’ is both a reference to the wine she was drinking the previous evening, as well as conveying how sleep-deprived she is.

The juxtaposition of this with the fact that Sunday is seen as the holiest and ‘purest’ day of the week intensifies the feeling of guilt. However, endearingly, her mother doesn't chastise Kelsea, rather, she simply makes her some eggs to help her feel better.

“Sorry, Mom, you know that I had sex
'Fore I bought the white dress
I know you're not impressed
With my lack of sticking to the Bible
Yeah, I got regrets, but you did your best”

The earlier mention of it being ‘the Lord's day’, Sunday, foreshadows this verse, with Kelsea Ballerini delving into the complicated dynamic that arose when her mother found out she'd had pre-marital sex. It's a topic Kelsea has discussed previously, explaining how difficult it was to navigate this in a conservative Christian community.

She admits she has numerous regrets about how she acted in the past, before underlining that any mistakes she might've made were not the fault of her mother, who did her best.

“I turned out alright
So you can sleep good at night
Maybe I ran all the red lights
Maybe we got into a few fights
It's a different cloth we cut
But underneath, wе're the same blood
So I know it took a littlе tough love
To become the woman that you're proud of”

Kelsea Ballerini brings the narrative into the present-day, as she emphasises that both her and her mother can now sleep peacefully knowing that she “turned out alright” in the end. The protagonist outlines that, regardless of the regrets she references in the previous verse, she's blossomed into a woman her mother is proud of. Despite the fact that Kelsea and her mother took different routes in life, she stresses that they'll always be “the same blood” deep down.

“Sorry Mom, I didn't graduate
After two years and some change
And that money went to waste
I know it wasn't cheap tuition
There were dreams to chase and songs to play”

Kelsea continues her list of apologies by reflecting on how she dropped out of Nashville's Lipscomb University after two years of her degree, to sign a record deal with Black River Entertainment at 19. Kelsea renewed her deal with Black River in February.

Kelsea Ballerini underlines she's sorry for the money her mother poured into her education, as she's aware just how expensive it was - but ultimately, she had to follow her heart and chase down her dreams. It's safe to say it worked out in the long run!

“Sorry Mom, I missed your 58th
I was on another plane going to another stage
My priorities were out of balance
You told me to go
But wished I was home”

The Knoxville singer-songwriter gets personal again here, as she reveals she still feels guilty for not being present at her mother's 58th birthday, due to touring commitments.

Her mom told her to go and play the shows, but Kelsea ended up wishing she'd stayed home. She highlights how, now, her priorities are focussed more around her family than her career.

“Now, I turned out alright
And we both sleep good at night
I met a guy that we both like
And I got a house with a porch light
It's a different cloth we cut
But underneath, we're the same blood
So I know it took a little tough love
To become the woman that you're proud of”

In the final iteration of the sinuous hook, Kelsea Ballerini swaps out a few of the lyrics, singing, “And we both sleep good at night” instead of “So you can sleep good at night”.

During her August 2024 interview with The Associated Press, Kelsea Ballerini touched on the vulnerability of ’Sorry Mom’, “It’s an intimate song. The first line is, ‘Sorry, mom, I smelled like cigarettes’. You know, it’s the things that your mom doesn’t really want to hear. But then you get to the chorus and the meat of it and the heart of it, and it’s a letter of thanks to my mom for raising me the way she did”.

“Sorry, Mom, I smelled like cigarettes
And my eyes were Casa red, with a pounding in my head
Showing up again on Sunday morning
You just made the eggs and turned your head

-

Sorry, Mom, you know that I had sex
'Fore I bought the white dress
I know you're not impressed
With my lack of sticking to the Bible
Yeah, I got regrets, but you did your best

-

I turned out alright
So you can sleep good at night
Maybe I ran all the red lights
Maybe we got into a few fights
It's a different cloth we cut
But underneath, wе're the same blood
So I know it took a littlе tough love
To become the woman that you're proud of

-

Sorry Mom, I didn't graduate
After two years and some change
And that money went to waste
I know it wasn't cheap tuition
There were dreams to chase and songs to play

-

Sorry Mom, I missed your 58th
I was on another plane going to another stage
My priorities were out of balance
You told me to go
But wished I was home

-

Now, I turned out alright
So you can sleep good at night
Maybe I ran all the red lights
And maybe we got into a few fights
It's a different cloth we cut
But underneath, we're the same blood
So I know it took a little tough love
To become the woman that you're proud of

Sorry Mom

-

Now, I turned out alright
And we both sleep good at night
I met a guy that we both like
And I got a house with a porch light
It's a different cloth we cut
But underneath, we're the same blood
So I know it took a little tough love
To become the woman that you're proud of

Sorry Mom”

For more on Kelsea Ballerini, see below: