Kelsea Ballerini, 29, may have released her breakup EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, nearly six months ago, but now she’s ready to release an extended version. The “Miss Me More” hitmaker took to Instagram on Aug. 1 to announce that her EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good), will be released on Aug. 11. In the caption of the album cover, she seemingly asked her fans to back off her ex-husband, Morgan Evans, 38.
“With this, comes a favor. from the deepest and purest part of my heart, i ask that you help this be ours and let the music simply be the music, not dig back into the experience that it was written about nearly a year ago,” she wrote, seemingly referring to her Aug. 2022 split. “as a songwriter, producer, artist i’m proud and protective of this EP, and as a woman and human also proud and protective of the new, happy season of life i’m in.” Since Morgan and Kelsea‘s split, she has been linked to Outer Banks star Chase Stokes, 30.
The blonde beauty went on to express that her “real hope” is for her and her fans to be able to heal and grow together. “my real hope is for us to continue growing, healing, and evolving together with acceptance and kindness (even when we unleash our inner fire breathing dragon singing the new versions of these songs). am i right?”, she added, along with a wink face emoji. Kelsea and the 38-year-old got married in 2017 when she was 24 years old.
Although Kelsea did not explicitly name Morgan in her post, the timeline of what happened “nearly a year ago” lines up with her split. At the start of the caption, the 29-year-old expressed that she was inspired by her fans to release an extended version of the EP. “‘it’s kinda scary opening a wound that time has mended’ …but this unexplainably transformative welcome mat had one last bit of rolling up to do,” Kelsea wrote. “it’s most important that i articulate that this re-release is for you and you only. the added outro’s that we ended up screamsinging [sic] nightly on tour, the lyric changes along a healing journey, hearing you very loudly explain that the INTERLUDE NEEDS TO BE A FULL SONG KELSEA COME ON. plus, a new song to bring the story more up to date.”
Many of her fans took to the comments to react to the EP announcement, as well as express their support for Kelsea. “truly cannot express how excited i am to scream-sing this flying down a country road in the car with the windows down,” one admirer gushed, while another added, “promise we’ll all keep that chapter rolled up FOR GOOD for you. im so so dang proud of you. THANK YOU for letting us be a lil part of your healing journey & for literally putting a lil mark of us in these new versions. youre a brave & a special one kb. we LOVE YOU (for good)!!”