Carly Pearce just keeps bringing it.
She kicked off 2022 by performing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon for the first time last night, where she sang “Diamondback” from her fantastic record, 29: Written In Stone.
It’s definitely one of those tracks that has grown on me over the last several months, and I think it worked really well on late night TV.
It’s a sassy little song full of attitude about how her ex is never getting her engagement ring back after a breakup, and while Carly has pretty much taken the high road publicly during her divorce, it’s fun to get to see this side of her too.
The song was originally started by Kelsea Ballerini, but Carly finished writing most of it with Shane McAnally and Tofer Brown.
In a previous interview with People, Carly said that song became her “go-off” moment where she really got to let go and be totally unapologetic about some of her feelings during her divorce:
“I think it was the last song I wrote for this project. You try to do the right thing and you try to stay quiet, and I just stopped caring in that moment. I went, ‘Hmm … I gotta go there’ — and I did.
All of the great women that I love as writers and as singers and as performers… Natalie Maines of The Chicks, had those go-off moments. I grew up loving those.
Miranda writes from such an unapologetic place, Loretta Lynn writes from such an unapologetic place, Kacey Musgraves … so that was my go-off moment.”
And I’m here for every bit of it.
Carly seems like such a sweetheart, but I think every girl who’s ever been through any sort of breakup can relate to her feelings about wanting to keep something from their ex mainly just to piss them off.
And when she said “the devil’s in the details” on her other song, “What He Didn’t Do,” she meant it.
Her drummer debuted a new drum kit on the show last night, and fans noticed a striking similarity on the front of the bass drum to her actual engagement ring from ex-husband Michael Ray:
It may be petty, but I absolutely love it. It’s great if you can take the high road all the time, especially after the end of a bad relationship, but sometimes shit like this just feels so damn good and it can be better than any kind of therapy, honestly.
If you haven’t heard “Diamondback” yet, it’s deep cut worth checking out:
The studio version:
