Kelly Clarkson recalls facing prejudice from music execs after winning 'American Idol' in 2002

Kelly Clarkson had a lot left to prove even after winning American Idol in 2002.

In a new interview with SiriusXM Hits 1 alongside fellow The Voice coach John Legend, Kelly shared that music execs assumed she couldn’t write songs as she came from American Idol.

The Grammy winner said, "I think the label was very against — I won a talent show. They did not know I was a writer, and it was very hard to get that part validated via them, so 'Because of You' was rejected the first album," continued Kelly, referencing her debut album Thankful.

"They were like, 'It doesn't rhyme. It's the worst song ever,' like whatever, and I was like, 'Well, it's not really about that,'" she added.

Kelly would’ve been ok even if the song was released as an "album track" rather than a single.

"It's just something that's meaningful for me," she said. "And I think what really bummed me, I was kind of figuring that out about the industry early on that a lot of people just don't care. They don't care about the art of it. They just want to make the money, right?"

Ultimately, the song was released on her 2004 album Breakaway after she fought for it.

"But then the fans, it blew up and it was like my biggest number one worldwide," she recalled.

"I think that was the surprise of like no matter how much you can feel like the machine is against you, your fans will be there and they will be the reason why you get to continue to do and not the person, they're probably going to be replaced," added the superstar.

She added, "I had like five different label heads in a matter of years. You know what I'm saying?"

Sharing the big lesson, Kelly added, "They're probably not going to be there, you know? So, it really is about doing what you love and really holding strong to that and I think I was surprised because I just didn't see that coming."

Because of You became the No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as No. 1 on the U.S. Pop Airplay chart. It has 840 million streams on Spotify and is still one of Kelly Clarkson’s best performing songs.