Kelsea Ballerini pointed out a full-circle moment she experienced as she performed for an intimate crowd on a rooftop in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

Ballerini, 30, spoke about the “life-changing” recent years in her life when she took the stage on Friday morning (June 7). The award-winning singer-songwriter reflected on the growth she’s experienced over the last decade, including when she released “Love Me Like You Mean it” as her debut single in 2014 (she performed a reimagined version during the 2024 CMT Music Awards earlier this year). Ballerini’s most recent project is Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, a vulnerable EP she wrote about her journey of heartache and healing after divorce. The EP resonated deeply with Ballerini’s fans and she followed up with an extended version, Rolling Up The Welcome Mat (For Good), months later.

One of the songs Ballerini performed during the intimate show at Harriet’s Rooftop is “Penthouse,” a Welcome Mat track offers insight into Ballerini’s relationship with her ex-husband and the penthouse they shared in Nashville. She couldn’t help but notice when she arrived at the venue for sound check earlier in the morning that she could see her former penthouse from the rooftop stage. Audience members could see it behind her as she performed the Welcome Mat song on Friday.

“(These have been) life-changing and rewarding years of my life, and, you know, when I started, I put out ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ 10 years ago,” Ballerini said. “I was really worried about doing it all right, and I was really worried about — I wanted to be human, but I wanted to be a human that didn’t have any flaws and never disappointed anyone, and I shed that skin the last few years, you know? And I’ve never felt better, and I think that it’s this beautiful thing. And I don’t know if it’s age, or life, or love or all of the above, but I think there’s something really important that we all go through at some point in our life, where we just decide that if you’re happy with yourself and you’re making the choices that you believe make you a good person, doing the right things, everything else kind of just falls into line. And — it’s a God thing, man,” she said in response to one fan who shouted in support, “it’s a God thing,” followed by another who said, “you’re doing great, sweetie,” from the crowd. “And I just wanna say thank you so much for walking through it all with me when it wasn’t so glittery and when it was a bit chaotic. Thank you for loving this record like you did, and have, and continue to, and I want you to know that I have never, ever been so ‘mother’ over an album as I am this next one because I wanna make you proud on the way you’ve loved Welcome Mat.

“I came up here for sound check earlier, and you can see where I used to live,” Ballerini said. “You can see the penthouse behind me. So, this feels very full-circle and kismet. And I’m very happy to be here.”