Kelly Clarkson just covered another artist’s hit song, but as per usual, she did it her way. On the Thursday (March 23) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the three-time Grammy winner and her band Y’all put their own special spin on “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” the 1993 smash that solidified Lenny Kravitz‘s place in music stardom.
The Thursday (March 23) performance came complete with all the hallmarks of Clarkson’s best Kellyoke performances, including flashing lights, epic solos and the “Stronger” singer’s own signature vocal power. She belted out one sky-high note after another throughout the song while her electric guitarist shredded sizzling riffs behind her.
“So tell me why we got to die/ And kill each other one by one/ We’ve got to hug and rub-a-dub/ We’ve got to dance and be in love,” Clarkson sang, her audience clapping along to the hardcore beat.
“Are you gonna go my way?/ And I got to, got to know/ Are you gonna go my way?”
Released in 1993 as the title track and lead single off Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way album, the rock anthem is one of the Hunger Games star’s best-known songs. It topped Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart the year it was released and picked up two Grammy nominations in 1994, earning nods for best rock song and best male rock performance. Meanwhile, the album reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200, at the time blowing away Kravitz’s previous chart peaks with Mama Said and Let Love Rule.
“It just did what it wanted to do,” the musician told Billboard in 2013, reflecting on the then 20-year-old record’s success. “It was an amazing time. I was touring the world and seeing the world for the first time that extensively, and my life was very, very free, very wild, a lot of craziness going on — a lot of emotions and a lot of feelings. But I had no idea that this record was going to catapult me into that next level, no idea at all. I was just really enjoying the creative process.”
Watch Kelly Clarkson rock out to Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” in the video above.