Carly Pearce Recalls Surprising Way She Landed Her Record Deal

Carly Pearce had almost given up on music when she landed her record deal with her current label, Big Machine. Ironically, it was from the song that became her debut single, "Every Little Thing," after almost everyone had already passed on.

"I was like, "I think 'Every Little Thing' is special," and they were like, 'This will never move the needle for you,'" Pearce recalls to Nashville's Tennessean of pitching the song around. "Literally two weeks later, J.R. Schumann at (SiriusXM station) The Highway heard it.

"I wanted to go with this up-tempo [song] that I didn't write that I thought was a hit for 'The Highway Find,'" she continues. "And he said, 'I'm going to make (you) a 'Highway Find' this week with 'Every Little Thing.'"

Pearce, who had already been told "Every Little Thing" was not going to have any impact on her career, no longer wanted the song out when Schumann decided to release it.

"I remember going to Daniel Lee, our publisher," Pearce recalls. "I [went] to his office and I just cried. I was like, 'The Highway Find' was my one shot. And there's no way that this song is going to work.' He said, 'Let's give it to him, because maybe he'll be in there after and put it on the radio that night.' I went in with J.R. and Buzz Brainard and we put it out.

"I had made dinner plans with a girlfriend, and I had a direct message on Instagram from Allison Jones, head of A&R at Big Machine," adds the singer. "She said, 'I need you to call me in the morning. You found your three minutes.'"

"Every Little Thing" was written by Pearce, along with Emily Shackleton and busbee, and was inspired by Pearce's own break-up.

"I had a really bad heartbreak that really did a number on me," Pearce reveals. "I had never experienced that kind of heartbreak [where] you can't breathe. And you can't imagine one second without someone. You kind of don't want to forget, but you do, and you go through this internal battle with that. We've all experienced loss in some way."

Pearce may have had her heart broken, but she has found love once again. The Kentucky native is happily dating fellow singer, Michael Ray, but she does have a permanent reminder of how much that song changed her life. The 28-year-old recently got a tattoo of the words, "every little thing," inscribed on her arm

"Every little thing-- the song that changed everything about my life," Pearce explains along with a photo of her new ink. "Sometimes heartbreak and hard times can show you the light. Those moments you can't breathe because you're so heartbroken? They will pass, you will grow & be stronger and better because of them. I'll forever be reminded of 2017, the year that changed my life. Thankful for ALL the twists and turns that brought me to the happiest time of my life."

Download "Every Little Thing" on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Davis