"Idol" Alum Kellie Pickler, Semi Precious Weapons' Justin Tranter Team for Tune

Here's something for the "unconventional collaborations" files: American Idol country sweetheart Kellie Pickler has found a new partner in crime in fiercely flamboyant glam rocker Justin Tranter of Semi Precious Weapons. The pair met at New York's Bryant Park last February, hit it off and stayed in touch. "We just clicked instantly, probably because we look like gorgeous blonde twins, both wearing 5-inch heels separated at birth and raised on different planets," Tranter tells RS. "I have the filthiest rock & roll band in New York, and she is a Southern Belle country music princess, but we can just talk for hours like we are the same girl."

Their initial plans involved collaborating on a necklace (Tranter has a jewelry line), writing a song and conducting "a racy photo shoot together wearing nothing but panties and heels for Rolling Stone!" The two have completed two out of the three (uh, thankfully?), and the necklace was up for sale at the merch booth when Taylor Swift's tour swung into New York's Madison Square Garden last week. (Check out photos and a full report from Swift's Fearless show.)

"After the show at Madison Square Garden, we went to a little restaurant and pigged out on French fries, macaroni and cheese and champagne," Pickler says. "We ended up writing a song in the bathroom!" Tranter tells us the tune is called "Black Tears" and is "all about crying while wearing too much makeup. So country, so glam, so rock & roll, so beautiful."

Tranter adds, "Kellie is so much more rock & roll than anyone knows. But I think the world will find out soon."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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