“I Could Sacrifice Myself and Do It”: Carly Pearce Reveals What Helped Ease Her Nerves During Video Shoot With Riley Green

Have a love song that needs the perfect chemistry? Then Riley Green might be the ideal collaborator. His collaboration with Ella Langley on “You Look Like You Love Me” completely controlled the charts. It also brought both Langley and Green a few awards, including Video of the Year at the CMA Awards. Able to bring more than enough steamy chemistry to any music video, Carly Pearce recently revealed how she needed some champagne before getting close to Green for “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay.” 

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When sitting down with Absolute Country Radio, Pearce was asked about her latest release. In March, the singer released the music video for “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay.” Featuring Green, the video quickly caught the attention of fans. Even when it broke into the Top 40 on the US Hot Country Songs, fans still considered it a perfect song. For one fan, they declared, “Riley is my husband to be forever and always, honey.”  

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But what about Pearce’s thoughts on working with Green? She joked, “If somebody was gonna been a music video like that with Riley Green, I said, you know, I could sacrifice myself and do it.” 

[RELATED: Watch Riley Green Deliver Sultry Performance of “Worst Way” at the AMA Awards]

Carly Pearce Only Needed “30 Seconds” With Riley Green

Willing to sacrifice herself for the music, Pearce found it difficult to get into the right state of mind. Especially since the two singers have been friends for years. “Our first scene, when you’re watching the video and our faces are like, right here singing to each other. And you know, I know Riley, he’s my friend, we’re friendly, whatever, but not like that.”

Although friends, when the cameras started rolling, Pearce needed to get into character. “Oddly, we both said, for about 30 seconds, it was like, this is so awkward. Like, how are we ever going to do this? I think his mustache touched my lip, like oh my God… I mean, I felt the ‘stache.”  

While startled by the “stache”, Pearce considered the music video a success and thanked some liquid courage for the help. “I did finish a bottle of champagne at the end of the day, so I guess it got easier for me because I was feeling better. But I think there were only two moments where we literally lost it laughing.” 

Between the awkward moments, champagne, and Green’s famous mustache, the pair managed to turn their longtime friendship into one of country music’s steamiest collaborations. 

(Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)