Kelly Clarkson Gets Sales Bump After Endorsing Ron Paul

Kelly Clarkson's sales went up after she endorsed Ron Paul.

Ethan Miller/Kevin Winter/NBCUniversal/Getty

Kelly Clarkson's record sales got a bump over the weekend after the singer endorsed Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, a move that resulted in her coming under fire from fans who do not approve of the politician's views on gay rights and the death penalty. Clarkson's latest album, Stronger, surged to the upper reaches of both the Amazon and iTunes digital sales charts within a day of the endorsement.

"I love Ron Paul," Clarkson wrote on her WhoSay account on Thursday. "I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he's got my vote. Too bad he probably won't."

After her fans challenged her support of the Texan congressman, she offered an apology and clarified her position in another WhoSay post. "I do not support racism," she wrote. "I support gay rights, straight rights, women's rights, men's rights, white/black/purple/orange rights. I like Ron Paul because he believes in less government and letting the people (all of us) make the decisions and mold our country. That is all. Out of all of the Republican nominees, he's my favorite."

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter