Carly Pearce Calls Grand Ole Opry Induction the ‘Greatest Moment of My Life’

Carly Pearce was officially inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday, Aug. 3, the culmination of a dream the Kentucky native has had since she was a little girl. Pearce was invited to join the famed institution by Dolly Parton in June and was officially inducted by Trisha Yearwood, and she reflected on the special night in an Instagram post the following day.

“Last night was the greatest moment of my life,” she captioned a series of photos of herself on stage solo and with Yearwood. “Thank you for welcoming me into the family @opry & thank you @trishayearwood for the beautiful induction.” On stage on Tuesday night, Pearce told the crowd that she had “tried to think of how to sum up what this means to me.” “The best way to describe it is, when I was a little girl, I dreamt of country music, and I dreamt of singing on this stage,” she said. “And my grandma, my Mamaw and my Papaw Pearce, I always told them that if I made it here, they would be front row. And they didn’t get to see that happen, but I really do genuinely feel like they’re here with me tonight. And I know that it was my dream as much as it was theirs.

The 31-year-old noted that she has “seen a lot of my dreams come true over the last few years, but I think what makes this place so special, what makes this family such a place that I wanted to be a part of, is because you can have hit records. You can sell out shows. You can be on awards shows. But all of that can fade, and this is something that I will have forever, and a place that I can come to, and a stage that I can sing on, and a circle that I can stand in, and a family that I can be a part of, and that can never be taken away from me. And that’s super special to me.”

“All I’ve ever wanted to do in the entire world is sing country music,” she continued, reflecting on her first Grand Ole Opry performance at age 25 when she was still working as an Airbnb cleaner. “I kind of feel like I’ve grown up in this industry over the last five years with them,” she said of the Opry. “This isn’t another feather in my cap. This isn’t another accolade. This isn’t another thing to add to my wall. This is a promise to all of you, and to this organization, that I will do my due diligence as a Grand Ole Opry member to make sure the circle is never broken.”