Carrie Underwood Recalls Impact of Her Father's Words

Carrie Underwood looked flawless in her performance of her new single, "Cry Baby," at the 2018 ACM Awards, but the singer isn't immune to harsh words. Underwood, who admitted to being nervous about her appearance after her fall in November resulted in numerous stitches to her face, recalls an earlier time when someone criticized her looks, and the wise words her father offered that made her feel better.

"One day, when I was about 14 years old, I'd had a particularly rough day at school because I had been teased by a boy in one of my classes," Underwood recalls to People. "He made fun of my makeup. (Hey, I was just 14 … I was still learning how to do it.) At dinner that night, for no reason at all, my dad told me that I looked really pretty. He had no clue about what happened that day, nor is he exactly the kind of guy to give out compliments like that freely. But those words turned a bad day into a really good one."

Underwood just revealed she is releasing her new album, Cry Pretty, on Sept. 14. The new set of tunes is Underwood's sixth studio album, and her first time acting as co-producer.

"Co-producing was, I feel like it was kind of a natural evolution," explains Underwood. "I had been working with David Garcia on the writing side of things, and we just really hit it off. The first song that we wrote together is on the album, so it was kind of like, 'I like this guy. Write with him again.' There's a certain chemistry that comes together when there's a band there, and everybody feeds off each other. We got a lot of guys that I had worked with before, and some that I hadn't. Everybody rocked it.

"I'm so proud of my album, Cry Pretty, and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do."

Underwood's triumphant return to the stage came after one of the most challenging times of her life, when her injuries left her unsure about her future. But as she sang lines like, "You can pretty lie and say it's okay / You can pretty smile and just walk away / Pretty much fake your way through anything / But you can't cry pretty," it was clear that Underwood felt every word of the song, and was happy to be back behind the microphone.

"The first single is a song I love so much and can't wait to share with you," Underwood revealed prior to the song's release. "The title refers to when emotions take over and you just can't hold them back. It really speaks to a lot of things that have happened in the past year and I hope when you hear it, you can relate those feelings to those times in your life. It's emotional. It's real. And it ROCKS!"

Download "Cry Pretty" on iTunes.

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