Carly Pearce is moving full-speed ahead, and she is better than ever. In the last several months, the 30-year-old lost her good friend, producer and collaborator, Busbee, had to come off the road because of the coronavirus pandemic, and split from her husband, Michael Ray, after only eight months of marriage.
And she insists she is better than ever.
“I feel like if you believe in you and you choose to do what’s best for you and you just continue to pour into the people that you love and work hard and believe in you, it’s amazing how a few short months can completely 360,” Carly revealed on The Kelleigh Bannen Show on Apple Music Country. “And I will tell you it has done that for me. It has 360-ed, not one 180-ed, 360-ed and gone, ‘Oh, I’m okay. I’m okay. And I’m excited. And I’m excited for music.’ And I feel like country music, I’ve always run to country music when I’m sad, and more than ever I ran to it during this time full-speed and it gave me what I needed.”
Carly especially ran to country music for her new single, “Next Girl,” which she wrote with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, drawing inspiration from the female artists she admires, like Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and more. While she has yet to publicly comment on her divorce, she says plenty in the lyrics of the song.
“I think that even if someone hasn’t, if a girl has not experienced this yet, God bless them that they haven’t, they’re going to,” Carly shared of the message behind “Next Girl.” “And I feel like the song is almost like preparation and also like an anthem of just like this has nothing… We as women think it has to do with us. It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with them.”
Carly burst onto the music scene with her vulnerable debut single, “Every Little Thing,” and has continued releasing music about her own life, including with her triple CMA-nominated single, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” as well as “Next Girl.”
“Since I started making music at this level, my first song was so personal, and I think it showed me that we’re all humans and we all go through the same things,” the Kentucky native explained. “And I almost feel like sometimes being vulnerable and being real and being a human being … a lot of people see our lives as kind of almost not real at times. And just to kind of bring it back, humble pie and be like, ‘No, no, no, no. I’m just like you,’ I think that is a part of my narrative that I want to keep moving towards and going into.
“However, I do think I’ve learned some lessons through the last few years of maybe to keep certain things more private, maybe not exploit every aspect of your life too quickly,” she added.
Carly always wanted to be a singer, famously quitting school and performing at Dollywood as a teenager, just so she could pursue her passion. While she dreamed of the success she is now having, she admits she didn’t quite know the price she would pay in her personal life.
“I think when you go through some of the public parts that I’ve had to go through recently, sure, I wish I could run away and hide from some of that,” Carly conceded. “It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
“Next Girl” is the debut single from her upcoming new record. In addition to the three CMA nods for “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” Carly is also nominated for New Artist of the Year. The 2020 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville on Wednesday, November 11, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.