Carly Pearce just released “Dream Come True”, her first single from her next album. Pearce wrote the powerful song with Lauren Hungate, Tofer Brown, and Emily Weisband. Sadly, Pearce’s own mother became the inspiration for the heartbreaking song.
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“Dream Come True” ends with, “My mama’s sick / Don’t see her that much when I’m on the road / And it’s gettin’ too hard to come to my shows / Like she used to / She says I can’t quit / But then all of her prayers would be in vain / She worked my whole damn life to make / This dream come true.”
“She has Stage 4 COPD, which is a lung issue,” Pearce tells Audacy. She adds that it has become really advanced in recent years, causing her mother to miss a lot of her shows.
“This is obviously a piece of my story that I’ve kept pretty quiet, but I think it’s important,” Pearce says. “It’s an important piece that I wanted to share, just of parents getting older, parents being sick. My mom completely devoted her life to chasing this dream for me. It’s been hard over the last five years for her to not be able to be there with me, and me feeling that guilt of not being able to be with her.”
The Grand Ole Opry member is clearly emotional while singing the final part of “Dream Come True”. All of the song, but especially the last line, is a stunning recognition of her mother and all that she did to help Pearce succeed.
“That last line where it says, ‘She says I can quit, but all of her prayers would be in vain / She worked her whole life to make this dream come true.’ That’s really honest. And I’m sure a lot of people feel that way.”
Carly Pearce Talks About Writing ‘Dream Come True’
Pearce also drew inspiration for “Dream Come True” by looking at her own career, including winning and losing awards, watching other artists succeed, and more.
“If I’m honest, I was just feeling really low,” Pearce admits. “This career has had really, really high highs and it’s had really, really low lows. I was feeling a little lost. And just kind of having that feeling that anybody who has a dream, there are sacrifices to make the dream come true.”
In typical Carly Pearce fashion, she decided to turn those vulnerable thoughts into what became “Dream Come True”.
“I was kind of just in my feelings about that,” Pearce recalls. “And wrestling with all of those different kind of feelings of, ‘Well, I have this, but I didn’t get this.’ And, ‘I thought I’d have this.’ And, ‘I don’t have this. And, ‘Do people care? Do I matter? Do I have a viral moment? Can I compete? Am I too old? Do they care?’ All these different feelings. And I just wanted people to know they’re not alone in all of those feelings.”
Photo by Omar Vega/WireImage
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