Carly Pearce Wants to Be a Face of the Grand Ole Opry

06/18/2020 10:05 am EDT

Carly Pearce has made no secret of her love for the Grand Ole Opry, having performed at the iconic venue 75 times in just five years. Speaking to PopCulture.com and other reporters during a recent media event, Pearce opened up about her hopes when it comes to the famed institution, revealing that she wants to be the artist from her class of country singers who acts as a face of the Opry and helps move it forward.

"I don't feel like there's another artist in my generation that's really put in the work the way that I have with the Opry," she mused. "And I do feel like they kind of were one of the very first champions for me. I meant it the day that I stepped on that stage. I want to be a face of the Opry." The 30-year-old cited Carrie Underwood as a prime example of how she envisions her own relationship with the organization. "I want to be one of those people in the way that I feel like Carrie Underwood really took it on at the height of her career and put into it what it deserves," Pearce said. "And I want to carry on that legacy. And I think performing 75 times in five years, hopefully they know that by now."

The Kentucky native released her sophomore album in February, but when she debuted on the Opry, she hadn't found that success yet and shared that her beginnings on the Opry stage were a bit different than she had imagined. "I associated playing the Grand Ole Opry with making it," she explained. "And when I played on my debut, I was an Airbnb cleaner, so I had not made it, but I felt like in that moment that the Opry took a chance on me. I didn't have a song on the radio, but they just believed in what I was doing."

Pearce's recent performance this month marked her 75th time stepping inside the circle, and she reflected on the monumental moment in an Instagram post ahead of the show, which was played without an audience present due to the coronavirus pandemic. "My whole life I thought that once I played the #opry , I would've known I 'made it,'" the singer captioned a photo of her first Opry performance. "What's funny is on this night, I had no record deal, no songs on the radio, no tour." Pearce wrote that "sometimes OUR plan isn't God's & that's okay."

"Fast forward to now, and next week I will play that stage for the 75th time, and have been so grateful to build such a strong relationship with the Opry over the last 5 years," she concluded. "Thanks for believing in the girl in this photo, @opry ... you made so many of her dreams come true when she wasn't even sure if she'd ever get a real shot to 'make it.'"

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