Cassadee Pope Reveals Surprising Way Romance With Sam Palladio Began

Carly Pearce famously credited Cassadee Pope for inspiring her to initiate contact with her now-boyfriend, Michael Ray, saying that Pope "slid into the DM" with her boyfriend, Sam Palladio. Now, Pope reveals that that is exactly how she began dating the actor.

"I was inspired by Mandy Moore," Pope tells PopCulture.com. "She met her husband through slipping into the [direct messages], so that was kind of like an inspiration. So now I get to pass on the knowledge and experience to Carly. And I can't believe – I thought is was so funny that she talked about it. I didn't even remember that I told her that's how I met Sam, or that that's how we started dating. I wasn't telling her to give her advice I was just talking about how I met Sam. And so it was really funny."

Pope was previously engaged to her long-time boyfriend, Rian Dawson, but split with Dawson last year. And when Pope realized she might be ready to date again, she thought of Palladio.

"I went on Instagram," Pope recalls. "I was ready to get back out there and start dating. And I remembered I met him six years ago and never saw him again. And I was like, 'That guy's hot. I'm going to message him.' And then he messaged me back."

Palladio is best known for his role as Gunnar Scott on the hit TV show Nashville. But he's also a singer-songwriter, who contributed to several of The Music of Nashville soundtracks, and released his own The Waiting Game album last year. With two talented musicians, Pople says they have yet to collaborate on a tune, but she's definitely not opposed to the idea.

"We've written a little bit here and there," Pope says. "But it's hard with the distraction there. It's one thing to start as like, Maren [Morris] and Ryan Hurd; they started writing together before they got together. And I feel like they've got it down. Whereas we are just like, 'OK, let's take a break and go out to dinner.' And then we just never get back to the song. So we'll collaborate and sing together but the writing thing I think we still need to find our groove."

Pope just released her latest single, "One More Red Light," from an upcoming new album.

"That day I just had this idea of – I'm sure a lot of people have been there where you just don't want the date to end, and you just want to take the long way home and keep getting to know each other," Pope recalls of writing the song with Emily Shackleton and Kelly Archer. "It's just capturing the beginning stages of falling in love. They just thought 'One More Red Light' would be a cool way to tell the story."

Download "One More Red Light" here.

Photo Credit: Getty images/R. Diamond