Kelly Clarkson butted heads with no less than Clive Davis to make the record she wanted.

It has been a quiet year for Kelly Clarkson.

Aside from the widely reported tete-a-tete with legendary music executive Clive Davis over her new album My December, the planned North American summer tour that was later axed, and the recent firing of her manager, Jeff Kwatinetz, things have been rather ho-hum for the Texas native.

“I think it has been a fabulous creative year for me, but at the same time I think it has been a testing of my patience in some areas,” Clarkson said this week, upon the release of her third album. “I think it has been one of those years where it’s like a revelation. You’re like, ‘Okay, cool. I think I’m getting what I need to do now’ — surrounding myself with the right people and making decisions on happiness rather than for any other reason.”

The first American Idol winner also says a weight has been taken off her shoulders with the album now out in stores.

“You have no idea,” she says. “I’m fricking stoked about it! I can’t wait for people to hear for themselves what this buzz has been about.”

That buzz might come from the songs themselves, but Clarkson certainly battled to get the record out. Davis reportedly asked the singer to change parts of the album, fearing a lack of hit singles would result in poor sales. Clarkson says it was a battle she had been through before.

“They’ve got to make sure that there’s going to be hits on a record, and it’s supposed to be really successful,” she says. “When we came out with (2004 album) Breakaway, they knew Since U Been Gone was a hit but they didn’t think there were going to be any other songs that were going to be successful.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m telling you! No they’re not all like Since U Been Gone but these are good songs.’ With this record it was like, ‘Oh, we don’t hear any solid hits on here.’ Well, they never do! It’s not that much of a surprise. It’s not their job to write it, or to necessarily believe in it, it’s their job to sell it.”

My December is led by the singles Sober and the rather vitriolic Never Again, but Clarkson says she didn’t want this record to simply be a bunch of songs.

“I wanted to make one cohesive album, one story from one team of producers,” she says. “Most of my albums are like, from five different teams of producers and that’s great, they’re great records. But I wanted to try it old school and do it with one team.”

Although she wrote dozens of tunes for My December, 14 made the final cut. Clarkson, who cites Irvine and Sober as her current favourites, also says letting go of a song isn’t too difficult for her.

“I can be a perfectionist sometimes but most of the time I’ll definitely choose an emotional track over a perfect track,” she says.

Clarkson, who performs at Live Earth next Saturday, is planning a new North American tour to support My December and is intent on performing all of the new material on the road for roughly a 20-song set.

She also expects to promote the album around the world, and is already working on songs for a “dirty country, dirty blues” record in the vein of Bonnie Raitt.

KELLY THANKS HER LUCKY STARS

Although she has performed with artists such as Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, country music legend Reba McEntire and guitarist Jeff Beck, Kelly Clarkson says she doesn’t get starstruck.

But she does find it a bit tough to wrap her head around it.

“You just can’t believe you’re on the stage with them,” she says. “You’re just amazed at how lucky you are. It’s like, ‘There’s a lot of talented people here and how in the hell did I get here?’

Clarkson and Beck teamed up for a cover of Patty Griffin’s Up To The Mountain during the American Idol benefit special Idol Gives Backearlier this year. She says she was quite impressed by Beck’s playing style.

“He’s ridiculous on the guitar, let’s be honest,” she says. “It’s so bluesy and heartfelt. It almost sounds like a singer. When a guitarist can sound like a singer with their guitar means they’re amazing, to me. They sound as if it’s someone almost crying out to you. I was very flattered that he wanted to be a part of that.”