I mean, it makes sense…
Carly Pearce released her fifth studio album Honest Woman on August 28th, and it’s truly a work of art and one of her best yet. When you use a title like that for a record, you better be really ready to bare your heart and soul, and Carly has never been afraid to share her truth. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really need to.
Of course, Carly was previously married to fellow country artist Michael Ray, which she has spoken about publicly, and she told Bunnie XO not long ago that she was the one who “slid into” Michael’s DM’s because she thought he was cute and had heard a lot of good things about him from mutual connections.
This was very early in her career, around the time her 2017 song “Every Little Thing” went #1 and became her first commercial success, and Carly admitted that Ray’s career was very much on the up and up, and she was finally just starting to get a little bit of traction.
Carly says she thinks they were both somewhat blinded by the excitement and attention, though she was very clear that she went into it with pure intentions and was getting married “for the right reasons.” She admitted very honestly that she knew the night they got married she “shouldn’t have,” and Carly and Michael were ultimately only married for about eight months in total, from October 2019 until she filed for divorce in June of 2020
And during a recent conversation with David Begnaud on the The Person Who Believed In Me podcast, Carly explained that she knew on the day she got married that she “made a very big mistake,” as did everyone else around her:
“You know when you just know something’s not how it should be? I think everybody in my life knew I had made a… he made it very clear that I made a very big mistake.”
She says that Ray had a bit of a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality, but she didn’t see it until it was too late. But, she says she learned a lot about herself, and she learned how strong she really was because she was willing to “blow her life up” when she realized very quickly it wasn’t what she deserved.
And during a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Carly played a game of “Sip or Spill,” and when asked if there was a song she wished she never would’ve released, Carly was eager to spill, and she named her duet with Michael Ray, “Finish Your Sentences,” as one she would love to get rid of.
She joked that she’s an “honest woman,” and that she song “didn’t age well”:
“‘Finish Your Sentences’ with Michael Ray. Honest woman. That didn’t age well. Whoops… Oops… Sorry.”
They didn’t exactly have a cordial divorce, so that’s pretty understandable. The lyrics, written by Jesse Frasure, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley Gorley and Thomas Rhett, definitely paint the picture of a couple very much in love:
“Should I wear this dress?
You know it looks so good on you
Should we go to that bar?
Yeah, you know I got a table for two
Should we call a, a cab?
It’ll be here in five
Oh, there you go reading my mind
No, no, no, nobody knows me like you
Crazy how you do what you do, you do, ooh, ooh”
The song was included on Carly’s self-titled sophomore studio album, and obviously, she’s come a very long way since then, with incredible records like the new one Honest Woman, as well as her 2021 career-defining album, 29: Written in Stone.
It’s not often you’ll hear an artist be this honest, and I thought it was pretty funny… she’s certainly living up to her album title, that’s for sure.
“Finish Your Sentences”
The full interview is available here:
Honest Woman Track List
1. “Dream Come True”
2. “Church Girl”
3. “She Don’t”
4. “You Can Have Him”
5. “How Long”
6. “WWJD”
7. “Same Circus”
8. “Happy For Myself”
9. “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay” Carly Pearce & Riley Green
10. “I Don’t Have The Heart”
11. “He Don’t Like My Dogs”
12. “Leave My Heart Alone”
13. “Who’s Lying Here” Carly Pearce & Dan Tyminski
14. “Daisy”
15. “What If You Loved Me” Carly Pearce, Molly Tuttle & Dan Tyminski
16. “Why God Why Me”
“I Don’t Have The Heart”
“Why God Why Me”
“WWJD”
