Carly Pearce Reveals She ‘Blacked Out’ During First Kiss With Michael Ray

Carly Pearce has already admitted to making the first move with her boyfriend, Michael Ray, but now she’s sharing details about their first kiss, revealing that she doesn’t actually remember who initiated it.

“Our first kiss was to ‘She’s in Love With the Boy,’” Pearce tells All Our Favorite People podcast. “We both joke, and he would say this – we blacked out, and we don’t know who kissed who first. We have no idea.”

The Kentucky native first realized she had feelings for Ray while they were performing together in a songwriters round, and she was dating someone else.

“I knew Michael for a few years, and in February we played this radio show together, and he was sitting next to me,” Pearce recalls. “My best girlfriend was my keyboard player for a long time. I looked over at him and I looked over at her, and I was like, ‘He is so hot.’ And she was like, ‘Yes, he is.’ But then as the round kept going, I was like, ‘He is so hot, but it’s more than that. Uh-oh. I think I have a crush on him.’ My radio rep was like, ‘Well I’ll find out if he’s single.’ I’m like, ‘OK. I’m not single, but OK.’ I remember I was dating somebody at the time, and I was like, ‘I have to break this off, because even if it’s not Michael Ray, I shouldn’t feel this way about somebody else.’ So I did.

“We played New Faces, the CRS show together,” she continues. “After that, I was like, ‘I’m going to start doing it.’ So I just messaged him randomly over something that he posted on his {Instagram] story and I just started doing it. Before you know it, our direct messages were pages. We were doing it all day. Finally, one day I was like, ‘You know you have my phone number. We could text.’”

Pearce and Ray have been very public with their romance, with both of them sharing photos of each other on social media, but at least for Pearce, her reason to be open about their love with their fans is intentional.

“I feel like so much of a part of me is ‘Heartbreak and no bad boys. They’re awful,’ and holding the torch for those women,” Pearce says. “However, it makes – where’s the trash can because I’m going to make you throw up after I say this – it makes every single situation that I ever went through with any kind of relationship … it makes all the sense to you. I feel like every situation you go through in life prepares you for the person who’s going to change it, and that’s him.”

The couple are still going strong, albeit mostly long-distance for a few months. Pearce is currently opening for Luke Bryan on his What Makes You Country Tour. Find dates at CarlyPearce.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Davis