Carly Pearce is sharing more details about her “We Don’t Fight Anymore” collaboration with Chris Stapleton, out on Friday, June 16. The Kentucky native insists the new song, which she wrote with Shane McAnally and Pete Good, is not autobiographical, even though she just split with her longtime boyfriend, Riley King.
“I wrote this song about a year ago,” Pearce tells Audacy’s Coop. “It wasn’t what I was going through at the time, but I’ve always been somebody who really loves sad songs, always. Shane threw out this title, and it just felt like something that was really important. I feel like everybody has their highlight reel on social media. They don’t show you sometimes the backstage of what a relationship can look like.
“I’ve always wanted to push the boundaries, and be the exception to the rule of maybe saying things that maybe make people feel uncomfortable,” she adds. “But I think that’s good, because that maybe will tell you if you should be in this relationship or not.”
From the song’s inception, Pearce wanted Stapleton to join her on “We Don’t Fight Anymore,” even though she had no idea how much he would ultimately contribute to the song.
“When we wrote it, I heard Chris singing on it,” Pearce recalls. “I don’t know why. I kind of just heard him singing harmony on it, and I DM’d his wife, Morgane, and asked her if I could send a song for him, and it just snowballed. He ended up doing something so special on it, that unlocked the other side to the story, and it’s literally the most proud I’ve ever been to put out a song.”
Pearce is no stranger to singing with other artists, including her No. 1 hit, “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Lee Brice, and her chart-topping, Grammy-winning “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” with Ashley McBryde. But the Grand Ole Opry member insists “We Don’t Fight Anymore” is unlike anything she has ever released in the past with another artist.
“Obviously, I’ve had a lot of duets, and in a true duet, it’s one sings the first verse, one sings the second verse,” Pearce says. “He doesn’t do that. But what he does — I don’t even want to ruin it — what he does is still him, and he has his moment, but it’s just in such a neat way. And I feel like, for me to continue to try and evolve with my collaborations, I did it. This one is just unique. Of course it is, ’cause it’s Stapleton.”
Pearce has said that her new record will not have the raw heartbreak she had on 29: Written in Stone, but it will still have the blatant honesty that fans gravitated towards with her last set of tunes.
“I don’t think I’m doing a 180 at all,” maintains the singer. “Obviously, I don’t have something catastrophic happening in my personal life, thank God. But I think what that album taught me is who I am as an artist, which is unapologetically country, and it also just showed me that people want to hear the way that I see the world, whether that’s in my now or whether that’s in my past, or whether that’s what I want for, or what my friends are going through — just my perspective of things. And so I’m just really leaning into that right now.”
Find all of Pearce’s music and tour dates at CarlyPearce.com.
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Photo Credit: Courtesy of BMLG / Allister Ann