Carly Pearce Reveals Details on Heartbreak That Led to ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’

Carly Pearce’s duet with Lee Brice, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” from her upcoming new album, will be released next week. Although happily in love with Michael Ray, the inspiration for the song came from a previous relationship, which she now reveals she had to end when she realized she was developing strong feelings for Ray.

“I want people to know: Yes, I fell in love. And yes, there’s going to be those songs,” Pearce told ABC News Radio. “But in the process of falling in love, I have hurt someone else. I broke somebody else’s heart a few years ago, and had to figure out some things in my own life that maybe weren’t serving me well.”

The Kentucky native previously opened up about that relationship, and the moment she realized she needed to break it off, even if it was going to hurt someone she cared about.

“I knew Michael for a few years, and in February we played this radio show together, and he was sitting next to me,” Pearce prevoiusly recalled on the All Our Favorite People podcast. “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,’” she continued. “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.”

Pearce, who wrote the song with Luke Combs, says much like her freshman Every Little Thing album, her new set of tunes will share plenty of insights into her personal life.

“In the way that my first record was very unapologetically honest, this one is, too,” Pearce promised. “And with that, there’s still going to be those heartbreak songs. There’s still going to be those vulnerable moments. There’s confessions, there’s all kinds of things on this record that I feel like dive a little bit deeper.”

Pearce is known for being very active on social media, but vows to be even more transparent on her sophomore record.

“Social media shows some things, but I feel like you don’t know the whole story until you really listen to this record,” said Pearce. “And it’s all about finding my way to the place that I am now.”

“But it’s gonna have a little bit of everything on it,” she added. There might be a few duets.”

Photo Credit: Getty images / Jeff Kravitz