Watch Kelly Clarkson Perform Foo Fighters ‘Learn to Fly’ for Kellyoke

Kelly Clarkson flashed back to 1999 on the latest Kellyoke installment on The Kelly Clarkson Show. The singer and host delivered a rock-heavy performance of the classic Foo Fighters single “Learn to Fly,” marking the third time she has reimagined music from the band on the talk show.

In 2020, Clarkson covered “All My Life” during her first season, then followed up with “Times Like These” in 2021. Later that year, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl made an appearance on the show and discussed “Learn to Fly” while he was there. Clarkson took the chance to gush about his songwriting, quoting the lyric “Looking to the sky to save me, looking for a sign of life, looking for something to help me burn out bright” and adding: “Whenever I’m listening to your lyrics, and maybe you didn’t write it like this, but I love that soaring feeling. Visually, I always love your lyrics, too. You paint such a great visual for me.”

Clarkson pointed out the balance between light and dark to bring her praise to an end before Grohl stepped in to crush her dreams just a little. “I don’t want to burst your bubble,” he said. “At the time I wanted to become a pilot. I wanted to learn how to fly. I’m sorry. I got all these video tapes, I was reading all of these books. I’m singing it because I want to learn how to be a pilot, you’re singing it because you’re so inspired by it. I wanted to learn to fly, then I was like, wait, there’s math involved? I can’t do this.”

Clarkson’s recent Kellyoke performances haven’t come with an aside from the artist about abandoned aspirations. She recently sang Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” and a string of her own songs, including “Since U Been Gone” and “Dark Side.”

A number of Kellyoke picks this year have been encore performances that re-aired during Clarkson’s recent unexplained absences from the show. In February and March, the musician had Roy Wood Jr., Simu Liu, Wanda Sykes, with Josh Groban, Brooke Shields, Andy Cohen, and more fill in for her as hosts