Carly Pearce on 'Every Little Thing' Success: 'It Still Doesn't Feel Real'

When Carly Pearce wrote "Every Little Thing," with her good friends, Emily Shackleton and busbee, she was penning the postscript to a romance that ended painfully. Writing lines like, "Guess you forgot what you told me / Because you left my heart on the floor / Baby, your ghost still holds me / But I don't want to sleep with him no more," the haunting ballad seemed a risky move for a female artist to make her debut single.

While conventional wisdom said Pearce should begin with an uptempo, radio-friendly song, the 27-year-old not only made "Every Little Thing" the song she used to introduce herself to country music, but also the title track of her freshman album. The result? A gold-certified, No. 1 hit, with Pearce becoming the highest-charting solo female debut since 2015, and joining the ranks of Kelsea Ballerini and Carrie Underwood in becoming one of only three women to have a gold-selling, chart-topping debut in the past 12 years.

""I don't know how to put into words how much it still doesn't feel real," Pearce confesses to Sounds Like Nashville. "That song has continually amazed me. Never in a million years did I think that song would have broke the records and done what it's done. In Nashville, it's hard enough to break through as a female artist in general, but then with a heartbreak ballad as your debut, that's kind of the kiss of death.

"To see what it's done and maybe start to be one of the females in that line of girls that help to change the mold for new females is really, really exciting, and truly is all I've ever wanted to do," she continues. "I've dreamt of singing country music on a mass level since I was a little girl."

Not that Pearce's career was handed to her on a silver (or gold) platter. The Kentucky native famously quit school at 16 to work at Dollywood, before moving to Nashville, where she was often encouraged to quit, to move home, or to do anything but music. But for every naysayer, Pearce found a reason they were wrong.

"There was a fire in me that I can't explain," says Pearce. "Each day that I really thought it was the end, something would happen, even if it was so small, and make me believe that I could do it for another day," she explains. "So I really do genuinely believe in fate and going after what moves your heart."

The result in her hard work can be found in much more than chart success. Pearce, who opened for Brett Young last year on his Caliville Tour, will open for not one, not two, but three major tours this year. Pearce will kick off 2018 by opening for Blake Shelton on his Country Music Freaks Tour, then join Thomas Rhett on his Life Changes Tour, followed by hitting the road with Rascal Flatts for their summer Back to Us trek.

But while the stage will become Pearce's home for the next several months, she isn't about to get complacent about any part of her live performance.

"I have a responsibility of putting on the best show that I can. It's my responsibility and my job to make sure that people are enjoying themselves," Pearce says. "I think that people are starting, since the album came out, to identify me as Carly, and not just as the girl who sings 'Every Little Thing.' People are singing the words to my album cuts, and they just seem to have a bigger sense of who I am as an artist. And that's been really exciting to see."

A list of all of Pearce's shows this year is available on her website. Purchase Every Little Thing on Amazon and iTunes.

Photo Credit:Instagram/CarlyPearce