Carly Pearce is gearing up for her fifth studio album, and it sounds like nothing is off limits for the soaring songstress. The "Dream Come True" singer recently joined Katie Neal during the Superstar Power Hour to talk about her vulnerable new track, her family, and why she's making the album she always wanted to make.
LISTEN NOW: Superstar Power Hour with Carly Pearce
"I went in to write this particular day, and if I'm honest, I was just feeling really low. This career has had really, really high highs and it's had really, really low lows, and I was feeling a little lost and just kind of having that feeling that anybody who has a dream, their are sacrifices to make the dream come true," Pearce says of writing the new song, "Dream Come True."
"I was kind of just in my feelings about that and wrestling with all of those different kind of feelings of, well, 'I have this, but I didn't get this' and 'I thought I'd have this' and 'I don't have this' and do people care? Do I matter? Do I have, you know, a viral moment? Can I compete? Am I too old? Do they care? All these different feelings and I just wanted people to know they're not alone in all of those feelings."
The song rings true for Pearce, right down to the last lines about her mother being sick and unable to come to shows like she used to. It's not something Carly has talked much about, but she did give us an update on her mother's health.
"So she has Stage 4 COPD, which is a lung issue. that has been really advanced in the last few years and caused me to not be able to see her as much. She's doing really well right now," reveals Carly. "This is obviously a piece of my story that I've kept pretty quiet, but I think it's important."
"It's an important piece that I wanted to share just of parents getting older, parents being sick, and my mom completely devoted her life to chasing this dream for me, and it's been hard over the last 5 years for her to not be able to be there with me, and me feeling that guilt of not being able to be with her."
"That last line where it says, 'she says I can quit, but all of her prayers would be in vain, she worked her whole life to make this dream come true.' That's really honest, and I'm sure a lot of people feel that way."
The first sample of Carly's upcoming album is obviously packed with emotion, and she tells Katie Neal that the rest is no different, revealing and writing in ways she never has before. "I think I've stretched what I write about, and I've stretched kind of just giving more point of view on some different topics that people have never heard me sing about, which I'm excited about," Carly admits.
"This is what I wanted to do, and I think that's why I have so much peace about it. But it started because of this song and just having to figure out like, I need to return to the dream."
To hear more from Carly Pearce check out the full Superstar Power Hour interview above.