Who Was Brandon Blackstock? Learn About Kelly Clarkson’s Ex-Husband
on Aug 07, 2025
Kelly Clarkson Postponed Shows Due To Her Ex-Husband’s Illness
On Wednesday (August 6), Kelly Clarkson announced she is postponing the rest of her August dates for her Las Vegas residency, Studio Sessions.
“Unfortunately, I need to postpone the remainder of the August Studio Session dates in Las Vegas. While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them.”
She continued, “I am sincerely sorry to everyone who bought tickets to the shows and I so appreciate your grace, kindness and understanding.”
Her August 8, 9, 16, and 17 shows are affected by the postponement. No word on when they will be rescheduled, but it does sound promising that she used the word “postpone” and not “cancel.”
Her children’s father is Brandon Blackstock, her ex-husband.
Who Is Brandon Blackstock?
Publicly, Brandon Blackstock was probably best known for being married to music superstar Kelly Clarkson.
The pair met briefly in May 2006 at an ACM Awards rehearsal when Blackstock was still married to his first wife, Melissa Ashworth. The music manager and Ashworth share two kids together: Savannah and Seth.
She appeared at the country awards show to perform “What Hurts The Most” with Rascal Flatts, and Blackstock was the band’s tour manager. Brandon’s dad, Narvel, was Kelly’s manager. Clarkson has admitted in interviews that she didn’t even talk to Blackstock that day.
The pair met once again in 2012 at the Super Bowl when she sang the National Anthem and Blackstock’s client, Blake Shelton, performed “America the Beautiful” with his then-wife, Miranda Lambert. This time, Blackstock was single.
Just a few days later, they went on their first date. Ten months after that, they were engaged and they got married on October 20, 2013.
In June 2014, they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named River Rose. In April 2016, their son Remington Alexander was born.
The family lived in Nashville for a while, but once Kelly booked The Voice and eventually her own talk show in 2019, they relocated to Los Angeles.
When the world shut down in March 2020, the Blackstock family decided to do their social distancing on their ranch in Montana, where Clarkson continued to film her show virtually, even giving her audience a tour of their property at the end of March 2020.
In April 2020, Brandon and their kids filmed a special birthday video for Kelly, which aired on her show, where Brandon said, “I love you more than you’ll ever know.”
Just a couple weeks later, Kelly was gushing over Brandon helping her continue filming her talk show, as well as The Voice, during the pandemic.
“My husband is now a lighting technician, an audiovisual technician, a director and he’s also playing cowboy on our ranch,” she said during an interview with her fellow Voice coaches. “He’s got his hands full. We both, definitely, have our hands full. It’s not just this job, it’s [my] TV show and making records. We’re all still making records. It’s a lot of new things happening for us, and we’re trying to get it done.”
On June 4, 2020, Kelly filed for divorce, sparking a years-long legal battle over custody, child support, alimony, and Kelly accusing her ex-husband of running an “unlicensed talent agency” for making business deals on her behalf without a license. Both have filed numerous lawsuits against one another. Their divorce was finalized in 2022, but their legal battles continued until 2024.
Following their split, Blackstock resided in Montana. He purchased a new property when Clarkson was awarded the ranch they bought together in 2018. His daughter, Savannah, got married on his new property in 2024.
Brandon Has Another Connection To Music Royalty
Brandon was well-connected in the music industry as a tour manager and music manager, as well as being married to Kelly Clarkson for several years, but he had another connection to the music industry that goes back years.
Brandon’s dad, Narvel, was married to Reba McEntire for 26 years from 1989-2015. Narvel joined Reba’s band in 1980 as a steel guitar player. At the time, Reba was married to her first husband, Charlie Battles and Narvel was married to his first wife, Elisa Rittle. Both marriages ended in divorce in 1987 and 1988, and Reba and Narvel married in 1989, when Brandon was 12 years old. Narvel and Reba had a son, Shelby, a year later.
Reba was one of Clarkson’s biggest heroes growing up and ended up becoming one of her mother-in-laws, and grandmother to her children!
Kelly even used her close familial relationship to McEntire during her stint on The Voice to try to recruit country singers. See a photo of Reba and River Rose below.
Even though Reba isn’t officially her mother-in-law and her kids’ grandma anymore, the two remain close and have publicly supported each other since they divorced the Blackstock men.
Watch Kelly and Brandon in happier times, when he surprised her on stage while she was singing “Piece By Piece,” a song she wrote about him helping her heal from the neglect of her own father.
Brandon Passed Away On August 7
Brandon’s father’s company, Starstruck Entertainment announced the sad news on social media, writing,
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away. Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years. He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Blackstock family during this difficult time.
