Kelly Clarkson Reveals She Just Started Her Own Record Label — and Why It’s Been a Challenge: ‘I’ve Earned It’

It seems Kelly Clarkson is “Miss Independent” once again!

During the Wednesday, Jan. 22 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the pop star, 42, revealed that she has started her own label.

The news came while Clarkson was speaking with guest Keke Palmer — who has had her own record label for “six or seven years” — about the actress-singer’s musical group DivaGurl.

An impressed Clarkson then announced she had recently taken a similar leap in the music industry.

“I’m so much older than you…and it’s my first time in my career and I just now started my own label and I’m putting out my own stuff,” said the “Since U Been Gone” hitmaker. “And I’ve had some good teams, like, to work with, but there is nothing like being that 10-year-old again and being excited and nobody saying ‘Oh, you should do this’ and ‘You should do this.'”

One of Them Days star Palmer, 31, then noted how “people don’t know how hard it is.”

Clarkson responded, saying, “Girl, I’m finding out. I’m putting together a music video, and I’m like, ‘Wait, I forgot to do what?'” She then added, “I just now started it. I started writing, and I was like, ‘Wait, how do I put this out now?’ And then, I was like ‘Well, I guess through me.'”

Clarkson added: “I feel like I’ve earned it, so I’m excited. I think I’ve earned the moment.”

After winning American Idol in 2002, Clarkson signed a record deal with RCA, with which she released seven studio albums: Thankful, Breakaway, My December, All I Ever Wanted, Stronger, Wrapped in Red and Piece By Piece.

In 2016, Clarkson left RCA and signed with Atlantic Records, going on to drop her albums Meaning of Life, When Christmas Comes Around… and her most recent release, Chemistry, in June 2023.

As of Jan. 23, Clarkson was still listed on the artist roster of Atlantic’s website. An Atlantic rep did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

In May 2023, she discussed the meaning behind her Chemistry album title with Nancy O’Dell on TalkShopLive.

Revealing she experienced chemistry for the first time with her ex, music manager  Brandon Blackstock, Clarkson said, “I never really connected before my ex-husband. And I never connected with anybody like that. I’d never felt that. That kind of chemical … that level of just chemical reaction, I just never felt that and I remembered the first time we even met, I was like, ‘Woah.’ I just felt something.”

She then detailed the ups and downs of having chemistry with someone, adding, “And then it can go very poorly, chemistry. You can have amazing chemistry with somebody who you really shouldn’t be with, you know. Not that one person is good or bad, whatever. It’s just not a healthy environment.”

“I just feel like chemistry is a beautiful and amazing thing, but it’s powerful for the good and the bad. Makes you do stupid stuff,” said Clarkson