Carly Pearce Recalls Nearly Giving Up On Music: I Was Called ‘Dated’ & Urged To Leave Nashville

Hollywoodlife.com/Courtesy of Paige Kindlick

It’s been years in the making, but Carly Pearce’s debut album is here — and in this EXCLUSIVE interview, she tells us all about how she fought the critics HARD to pursue the career she’s always dreamed of!

Carly Pearce first moved to Nashville when she was just 19 years old, and it’s taken eight years for her to finally release a studio album. “I had a record deal, I lost it, had a publishing deal, I lost it. I cleaned Air B&Bs, I nannied, I was Lucy Hale’s back-up singer for a while, so there were moments in there when I wondered if this was actually going to happen,” she tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “There were moments that I thought maybe I shouldn’t continue. I was told to move home, told I was dated. People passed on “Every Little Thing” a month before it came out. So there were definitely moments, but I think in my heart, it was what I was meant to do. Sometimes chasing after a dream takes time and it takes growing up and figuring out who you are as an artist and as a person. I think that I got lucky that I was able to do that not in the spotlight.”

She finally caught her big break when SiriusXM’s “The Highway” started playing her song “Every Little Thing,” and it received insane airplay. A record label came next, and less than a year later, her album, Every Little Thing, dropped on Oct. 13. “It felt like every birthday or Christmas that I’ve ever had in my life all wrapped up in one,” the 27-year-old gushed. “I’ve dreamed of doing this forever, so it just kind of feels like a sigh of relief and a large celebration to have it out there.” Carly said she considers the album “a collection of 13 songs that are truly snippets of my life,” including one track, “Dare Ya,” for the fans who’ve been with her since the very beginning.

Another major milestone is out of the way now that the album is here, but that doesn’t mean Carly will be slowing down any time soon. “I love country music, that’s all I want,” she revealed. “I want to be one of the names you think of in 40 years who made a stamp and a mark on the genre. I just want to be one of those first name, you don’t have to say my last name because you already know it the way you know Dolly [Parton], Shania [Twain] or Reba [McEntire]. It’s a good time to be a girl in country music.”

HollywoodLifers, are you loving Cary’s album?