Kelly Clarkson had the chance to mentor the current crop of American Idol contestants and, as a veteran of the show -- not to mention its major success story -- there's pretty much no one better suited for the job. And she was totally up for the task, too.

According to PEOPLE, Kelly saw herself in the other contestants. She said, "It's cool to be able to kind of mentor a kid that basically is me 13 years ago." She went on, "And it's nice for them to see that you can have longevity and a career from a show like this. I know a lot of people get flack for coming from shows like this. I know I did. It's a talent show, but at the end of the day, it's not how you get into the industry, it's what you do once you're there."

The contestants on the show will even be singing songs straight out of Kelly's discography, which was, admittedly, a little weird for the "Heartbeat Song" singer. She said, "That was weird. I kind of felt, like, 'Sorry if you didn't want to sing one of my songs!'" The upside? Kelly had a chance to realize just how diverse her music is. She said, "But I will say, it's funny. You can see how eclectic I am because there is everything from R&B to pop-rock to singer-songwriter songs so they are picking all different kinds of songs. It's nice to see that my catalog isn't boring and I don't do the same song twice."

She also opened up about how much pressure she put on herself as a young performer, saying, "When I was on Idol, I was 19- and 20-years-old and I would put so much pressure on myself. I would get so wrapped up in trying to be perfect and it is so much better to have an emotional performance than it is to have one that is so perfect and vanilla."

Her advice to the current crop of kids trying to make it in the music industry? She said, "You want to make sure you're loving every minute of it."

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