Carly Pearce nearly gave up her whole career. During an appearance on American Songwriter’s Off the Record podcast, the country star told editor-in-chief Lisa Konicki why she’s been tempted to quit music.
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“My mom is sick,” Pearce revealed of her mother, Jackie Slusser, who suffers from Stage 4 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. “I don’t see her that much when I’m on the road. And it’s getting too hard to come to my shows like she used to. She says I can quit. But then all of her prayers would be in vain. She worked my whole damn life to make this dream come true.”
Pearce noted that, while her mom is doing “really well right now,” the last two years have been “very bad” for her.
“I didn’t know if she would be here today,” Pearce said. “… I would go to her and be like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s too painful.’ And she’s like, ‘Quit. I don’t want to see you hurting. I want you to have a good life. I don’t want you to feel isolated.’”
Pearce decided not to quit, though. She made that choice because she loves her job, but also because she didn’t want to let her mom down after she spent years sacrificing to make her daughter’s dream come true.
Carly Pearce Discusses “Dream Come True”
It’s a feeling Pearce delves into on her song, “Dream Come True,” which she released last year.
“My mother, this is the first time I’ve ever talked about her health journey. She’s the one who really made my dreams come true as a child and really supported me in my pursuit of music,” she said. “I was feeling at the time [I wrote the song], especially when things were really bad for her, that I couldn’t be there to take care of her, and she was missing out on this whole music thing.”
Pearce’s mom was just one source of inspiration for the track.
“A few years ago, I had moved into a home that I had bought myself, in a cul-de-sac, with four bedrooms,” she said. “I had filled it with much of the things from my childhood that I dreamt of. Awards, plaques. Many things. But I didn’t fill it with people.”
“I was surrounded by young women my age who had husbands and families and a very different life from mine,” Pearce continued. “It’s not that I longed for that life, but it made me feel alone. It made me, for the first time in 10 years, look up and go, ‘Wait a second. This fame success has come with a price.’”
That price, Pearce said, is missing a lot of family and personal events when you’re on the road.
“That song is really just a moment of going, ‘Wow, I’m really grateful for this life.’ Because I am. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world that I get to make music. But it has come with a price,” she acknowledged. “And I think people… No matter what you’ve sacrificed, if you have sacrificed something for a dream, something else has suffered.”
Carly Pearce Breaks Down “Church Girl”
While Pearce poured her heart and soul into writing “Dream Come True,” the next song she released was a rare outside write.
The first time she heard “Church Girl,” though, Pearce questioned how she didn’t write the song, which was penned by Carter Faith, Cameron Bedell, and Seth Ennis.
“I am a devout Christian, which I think is what is confusing people. My faith is a huge part of my life. Always has been,” Pearce said. “But I grew up in a way that was pretty rigid. And as I got older and had different experiences in front of the world… My life has not been perfect. My life on paper is not what you would think is the perfect Christian way of life.”
That fact, Pearce said, “brought up some questions” for her about “what’s right and what’s wrong.”
“I’ve felt guilt. I felt shame. I felt lost at times. And because I have been open with that, I feel like, over the last five years, people have come to me, come to my shows, and they’re on a journey,” she said. “They might be confused. They might feel lost. They might feel rejected. They might feel shame. They might feel guilt.”
“Wherever they are on their journey, wherever they are with their spirituality, with their Christianity, I want to breed an environment where everyone, no matter where you are on your path, you are welcome here,” Pearce continued. “You are welcome at my shows. Come. Because the worst thing that you can ever do to somebody is shut them out. And I’m not going to do it.”
Carly Pearce on Her Forthcoming Album
“Dream Come True” and “Church Girl” are just the beginning of the new music for Pearce. The singer plans to release a new song every eight weeks to get fans excited for her forthcoming album, details of which have yet to be announced..
“I have so much music,” Pearce said. “I’ve recorded almost 20 songs, which is crazy.”
As for what fans can expect from the LP, Pearce shared that, lyrically, listeners will “learn more of where I come from.” Sonically, she teased, they’ll “see maybe a less polished version of me.”
“There’s a lot of subject matters that I haven’t touched on. But there’s a lot of fun on it. There’s a lot of grit and flirtation and confidence. There’s a lot,” she said. “So I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, God. Is this just going to be another one of Carly’s doomsday situations?’ No. But that’s a part of it.”
“At the end of the day, I will always be somebody who writes real stuff, and some of my favorite songs are some of the saddest songs in the world,” Pearce added. “But there’s a lot here that I’m excited to slowly give to people.”
The upcoming release is particularly meaningful for Pearce, since she learned a lot about herself while writing and recording it.
“I learned I had so much more to say. I think even in my own brain, I pigeonholed myself to, ‘Oh, I know how to write sad heartbreak songs,’ which I do. I have a house on a cul-de-sac because of it,” she said. “But I have a lot more depth than I think I even knew. I have a lot more things that I care about. I really stretched myself, and I think people are just really going to hear that.”
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