Kelly Clarkson Assails Clive Davis Over His Memoir

Kelly Clarkson accused the label executive Clive Davis of distorting their tumultuous history in his newly published memoir “The Soundtrack of My Life,” saying his account of how he managed her career was full of “memory lapses and misinformation.”

“Growing up is awesome because you learn you don’t have to cower to anyone â€" even Clive Davis,” Ms. Clarkson said in a vitriolic letter posted on the Whosay Web site.

In his book, Mr. Davis, the founder of Arista and currently the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, paints a portrait of Ms. Clarkson as a headstrong and outspoken diva who sometimes ignored his advice.

He said she bitterly opposed putting “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes” â€" two songs written by th hitmakers Max Martin and Dr. Luke â€" on her second album, “Breakthrough.” Both became big hits and helped her career.  Mr. Davis relates how Ms. Clarkson “burst into hysterical sobbing” when he insisted on including the tracks.

He also accused her of disregarding his advice to delay the release of her third album, “My December,” on which she co-wrote the songs, because he believed it did not have enough tracks with Top 10 potential.  That album had only one Top 10 hit and sold few copies compared to “Breakaway,” which sold more than six million copies in the United States alone and established Ms. Clarkson as a major pop star.

In her letter, Ms. Clarkson denied she had resisted putting “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes” on her second record, though she recalled wanting more guitars in the mix. “Not true at all,” she said. “His stories and songs are mixed up.”

She said the only time she had ever cried in Mr. Davis’s office had happ! ened later, when she played him “Because of You,” a song she had written for her third album.  “I cried because he hated it,” she recalled. She added, “He continued on about how the song didn’t rhyme and I should just shut up and sing.”

Ms. Clarkson also defended “My December,” pointing out it sold more than one million copies.  She accused Mr. Davis of refusing to throw his weight behind the album.  “He doesn’t mention how he stood up in front of his company at a convention and belittled me and my music and completely sabotaged the entire project,” she said. “It never had a chance to reach its full potential.”

It is not the first time the two have sparred publicly about “My December,” which came out in the summer of 2007. Mr. Davis complains in his memoir that after their disagreement about releasing the album, Ms. Clarkson and her manager had “launched what amounted to a media campaign pitting her against the label and, more specifically me,” accusing himof stifling her as a songwriter.

“It’s clear that Kelly Clarkson has a decidedly independent streak, to say the least, and often speaks in public before she realizes the implications of what she’s saying,” Mr. Davis wrote in the book.