00:00You think being honest gets easier as you get older?
00:04I remember people being afraid for me to call my album 29 because it said my age.
00:08Saying I'm 36 is not something I'm going to be afraid of.
00:12What did you think success in music looked like back then and how does it compare now?
00:16I think I'm chasing more contentment and peace than success.
00:21And tell us about Dolly.
00:22What's she like?
00:23She wears high heels even to rehearsal.
00:25Is there one song on the album that was especially difficult to finish because it hit so close
00:30to home?
00:31Dream Come True is one of my favorite songs I've ever written.
00:34It exposes the nasty side of comparison.
00:38Which song on the album are you most excited to play live?
00:41He Don't Like My Dogs.
00:42I dated a guy for a short time who was not nice to my dogs and my dogs are still
00:47here and
00:47he's not.
00:48Do you believe in love?
00:50Hey it's Carly Pearce and I'm in studio with Joanne Butler.
00:55Hey Carly, how are you?
00:57Good, how are you?
00:58Good, thanks.
00:59Thanks for joining us on Life Minute.
01:01Thanks for having me.
01:02Congrats on your new album.
01:06Amazing.
01:06Honest Woman, tell us about it.
01:08I, a couple years ago, went into a writing room and was feeling really low and I wrote
01:18exactly how I was feeling, which was a song called Dream Come True that is out.
01:22And what that song did for me is it really made me realize I needed to go back and fall
01:29in love with music again and find my why in a season of high highs and low lows and success
01:36and then not success and getting wrapped up in that comparison game.
01:39And so what this album is for me is it's the return to form.
01:43It is owning my stories, owning the pieces of me that have been good, the pieces that
01:50have been bad.
01:51I think that these songs and this place in my life only comes from life experience, that
01:57only comes from age.
01:59And it's kind of just a celebration of not being afraid to say I'm a woman and I'm not
02:04a girl anymore and that age has been a huge strength for me.
02:08And I think this is my best music yet.
02:09And I found that girl again.
02:11Was there a moment when you realized you're ready just to, you know, to do this?
02:16Like what was the moment for you?
02:17I think I just, it snowballed.
02:20Once I started writing the album, I started to really be inspired by what are the other
02:24pieces of my heart?
02:26Yes, my career has been built on vulnerability, but what are other things that maybe fans don't
02:31know about me or what do fans not know is important to me?
02:35And I think I just felt really inspired as I was making this album to show more of myself.
02:41And I think I did that.
02:42Yeah, for sure.
02:43Your fans always say they feel like you're talking right to them and telling their story,
02:48you know, which is so vulnerable.
02:50Are you thinking about the audience at all when you're writing?
02:54For sure.
02:55I think I know who my fans are.
02:57I know what they want from me.
02:59I think they can sniff out if I'm not being completely honest, no pun intended.
03:03I think vulnerability is what brings people to my shows.
03:06So yeah, I definitely am thinking about them.
03:09And honestly, when I write from a very real place, I know that I'm speaking straight to
03:13them.
03:13Right.
03:14I love how you said about age too.
03:16I was going to ask you, do you think being honest gets easier as you get older?
03:21I do.
03:21I think you stop caring so much what other people think.
03:25And in a society where we're all trying to stay young, which I love Botox like the best
03:32of them.
03:32But I think saying I'm 36 is not something I'm going to be afraid of.
03:38I remember people being afraid for me to call my album 29 because it said my age.
03:43And that is terrible.
03:44I think you should be celebrated at any age and you can find true happiness at any point
03:48in your life.
03:49Not just when you're young.
03:51I love that.
03:52Carly, you have such a long way to go yet.
03:54Honey, you're still so young.
03:56Wow.
03:57I can't wait to see what else you're going to do.
03:59My goodness.
03:59And you say Honest Woman drops all the facades, the storylines, protecting others and the
04:05person you were supposed to be.
04:07Wow.
04:07Is there one song on the album that was especially difficult to finish because it hits so close
04:12to home?
04:13Dream Come True was really hard, but I will say Happy For Myself is it's one of my favorite
04:18songs I've ever written.
04:19But it, it exposes the nasty side of comparison, even to the people that are closest to you.
04:27And it kind of tells you a real life story of one of my closest friends, me being jealous
04:32of her.
04:33Interesting.
04:33Because you always think of the other side and now you're, you're putting it onto yourself
04:37and that, that's interesting.
04:39Boy, there's nothing more honest than that, Carly.
04:42Really.
04:42It's amazing.
04:43Which song on the album are you most excited to play live?
04:47He don't like my dogs.
04:50It's a jam.
04:51Yeah.
04:51Tell us about that one.
04:52How did that come to be?
04:54Well, I dated a guy for a short time who was not nice to my dogs and my dogs are
04:58still
04:58here and he's not.
04:59So I love it.
05:01It's an anthem for all of us animal lovers where, you know, you always say like dogs know
05:07best.
05:07They, they can sniff it out.
05:09And mine did.
05:10They, they were not having it.
05:12I love it.
05:13I love it.
05:14I love it.
05:16What's your next favorite song on the album?
05:17I mean, there's so many for different reasons.
05:20I love my collaboration with Molly Tuttle and Dan Tominsky.
05:23What if you loved me?
05:23That's really a return to my bluegrass roots that I've never gotten to share.
05:28People are always like, you should do a bluegrass album.
05:30And I want to do that eventually.
05:32But I think this really gives like a nod to that.
05:35Dan Tominsky and Molly are just incredible.
05:38Dan's been my favorite male vocalist since I was a kid.
05:40And so it's really special to get to collaborate with him.
05:43Same Circus is a fun one.
05:46Yeah.
05:46There's so many different moments on the album that I love.
05:50And you've been performing since you're 11.
05:52Tell us about that.
05:54How did you get into it?
05:55Did you always know you wanted to be a musician?
05:57My mom says she convinced somebody to take me on as a vocal student at six because she knew I
06:03could sing.
06:04So there was just never a question that this is what I wanted to do.
06:07I have no idea where it came from.
06:09My parents love music, but they were not musical.
06:12But my grandparents, as you will learn in this album, they had a really large influence on me musically.
06:19And yeah, I've just always wanted to be on stage.
06:21I feel way more myself there than I do not.
06:25So interesting.
06:26And then you left Kentucky at 16 to sing at Dollywood.
06:31That's normal, right?
06:32Yeah, totally right.
06:34I know.
06:35Now as an adult, I'm an only child.
06:36And I ask my parents all the time, like, what was wrong with you that you allowed that?
06:41And they just, you know, I was a good student.
06:44I've always been a driven person and applied myself in anything I wanted to do.
06:48But I think they just knew this is what I wanted to do.
06:50And good parenting, too.
06:51I think that's so important, parents that help you pursue your dream and believe in everything.
06:57My gosh.
06:58What did you think success in music looked like back then?
07:00And how does it compare now?
07:02Is there any success in?
07:04I think I would have said, oh, my gosh, if even half of the things that have happened in my
07:10career would happen, I would be set.
07:12And I think the life of a tortured artist with the highs and the lows and somebody who, you know,
07:18sets the bar very high as you realize, I don't know, I'm still trying to figure out what success means
07:24to me.
07:24I think I'm chasing more contentment and peace than success at this point.
07:29Besides music, how do you just keep it together with the life you have and everything you've gone through?
07:37I drink wine.
07:40I have really good people around me.
07:42I have a lot of the same friends that I've had since long before this took off.
07:49My parents would kick me in the butt if I ever changed.
07:52I live a very simple, normal, not glamorous life outside of this.
07:58I have zero desire to be in the scene, if you will.
08:02And I think that's what keeps me me.
08:03We can hear it.
08:04Honest.
08:05And tell us about Dolly.
08:07You have a close mentorship with her.
08:09What's she like?
08:10You know, the thing that you would probably just assume, she wears high heels even to rehearsal.
08:16Cannot relate.
08:17And I mean, I'm talking like this high.
08:21She is so musical still and so on it, so driving everything that happens, which you look at everything.
08:31I mean, she just opened her own gas station truck stop.
08:35Like she's just incredibly still motivated at her age and very quick with all of her, anything she needs to
08:44do.
08:44It was mind-blowing when I got to sing with her and watch her in rehearsals.
08:48Just, she's, she's a, there's a reason why there's only one Dolly Parton.
08:52What's your favorite Dolly Parton song?
08:54Jolene, hands down.
08:57How come?
08:58Those women, they wrote from such just an honest place.
09:01And she's literally pleading to this woman, don't take my man.
09:07And if you really think about that, that is the most honest woman you could, you could be.
09:12And she wrote that, and I will always love you in one day, which, queen.
09:19What would you say inspires you creatively?
09:22My life.
09:24The things around me that make me feel something.
09:27Country music has always been the thing that made me feel.
09:31From the time I was a little kid, I loved sad songs.
09:33I'm sure my parents thought there was something wrong with me when they could hear,
09:36you don't even know who I am, Patti Loveless coming from my bedroom when I was like 11.
09:39Oh, I'm always inspired by things that make me feel something.
09:43I love that.
09:44I have goosebumps.
09:45Who were some of your other influences growing up?
09:49Loretta, for sure.
09:51The way that she wrote music, she didn't care at all.
09:54Dolly, Faith, Trisha, The Chicks, Alison Krauss, The Judds, Wynonna, all the good singers.
10:02So good.
10:03So good.
10:04Leanne Womack.
10:05I love it.
10:05I love it.
10:06What's something you always bring with you on tour?
10:08Running Shoes.
10:10Yeah?
10:11Yeah.
10:11I love movement.
10:12And I think it centers me.
10:14And it's the only time where nobody can find me.
10:16And I like that.
10:17What's the first album you ever bought?
10:20The Woman and Me, Shania.
10:24Any collabs you'd want to do?
10:26Like, you know, in your dreamscape?
10:28My dream was always Stapleton.
10:30And I did that.
10:31And then I think on this album, getting to have a collaboration with Dan Tomensky.
10:36That was, I've loved Alison Krauss and Union Station for a long time.
10:40And that was really special.
10:42So maybe Alison next.
10:43Cool.
10:44Awesome.
10:45Coffee or tea and favorite cocktail, which you kind of told us a little bit already.
10:50Coffee and wine.
10:53Favorite comfort food?
10:55Pizza.
10:56Skin care regimens and beauty secrets.
10:59Because you have the most, you're gorgeous and you have beautiful skin.
11:04Microneedling, I think is my big thing at this point in life.
11:09I love all the kind of serums and retinols.
11:13I'm very into skincare.
11:15So all of it.
11:15Yeah.
11:16I think microneedling would be my big thing though now.
11:19Awesome.
11:19Awesome.
11:20Any beauty tips or healthcare advice?
11:23Never sleep in your makeup.
11:24I can't stand.
11:25That's like a pet peeve of mine when people do that.
11:27I'm like, you have five minutes.
11:28Do it.
11:29I think less is more in a skincare routine.
11:31I think people want to put all this stuff on their face and then wonder why it's breaking
11:36out.
11:37I don't know.
11:37I think less is more.
11:39And drink water.
11:41So good.
11:41Do you believe in love?
11:43I do.
11:44I so do.
11:45Yeah.
11:46If you weren't making music, what would you be doing?
11:48I don't know because I quit high school.
11:51I have a ninth grade education, so I'd have to marry a rich man.
11:57Oh my God.
11:58I love it.
11:59What do you like to do when you're not working and how do you relax?
12:03I like to be home.
12:04I like to be with my dogs.
12:06I like to cook in my kitchen.
12:08I like to go to the grocery store.
12:09I like to do laundry.
12:11I'm really boring.
12:12I really just enjoy peace when I'm not on the road.
12:16What's your favorite thing to cook?
12:18I make really good steak.
12:19Had it last night.
12:20What's your best life advice?
12:22Don't spend a dollar that you don't have.
12:25Oh my God.
12:26So good.
12:26You're so good.
12:27You're so smart.
12:28No, I'm not.
12:30You are.
12:31Your answers are so good.
12:34What's next for you?
12:35What's something you want to do that you haven't done yet?
12:37I really have a heart for young people with creative dreams.
12:45And I obviously partnered with the CMA Foundation.
12:48I continue to do that.
12:49I've done a lot of things, but I think continuing to mentorship, whether it's young artists that
12:55I'm taking on tour with me or really young kids in high school, just really helping to
13:01be a part of making people realize you can make any dream that you want happen.
13:06So I don't know what that is, but I want to figure out how to do that.
13:09That's so great.
13:11What's your best piece of advice for them, for those kids?
13:14That I came from a town of less than 5,000 people and went to school with so many kids
13:23that wanted to be actors or dancers or singers.
13:26And somewhere along the way, they felt like they couldn't do that.
13:29And I never lost faith.
13:32And if I can do it, you can too.
13:34I love it.
13:35And you will be touring a bit besides the two shows or?
13:39Yeah, I'll be.
13:40I'm doing a limited residency, two nights in specific major markets starting this fall
13:45with the Honest Woman Tour.
13:47So yes, I'm very excited.
13:48Awesome.
13:49And what are fans going to get when they see you play live?
13:52I think what I've learned more than anything is people come to hear my storytelling and
13:56hear me sing.
13:57And I think I'm really doubling down in a way that I haven't before with this tour.
14:01And I think it'll be the best yet.
14:04Awesome.
14:04You're such a lovely person.
14:07Of course.
14:09You are so special.
14:10And I wish you the best of luck with your beautiful new album.
14:14And I can't wait to see what you do next.
14:1635.
14:1736.
14:1936.
14:19Okay.
14:23The next dolly for sure.
14:25Oh, that's very nice.
