The girls are going to love this… she’s just like us.
Carly Pearce and Riley Green put out a new duet called “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay,” in March, which was written by Devin Dawson, Seth Ennis, Jordan Minton and Jordan Reynolds.
Of course, they had the internet in a frenzy just with the teasers they shared getting very up close and personal, but the music video takes all of that to the next level… they played a beautiful couple in the video, and just like in the song, they know they shouldn’t be together but letting that go is much easier said than done. There’s some elusive magnetism that keeps pulling them back together, and I’m always here for a good duet, and I love both Riley and Carly as individual artists which makes it even more fun to see them working together on such a great song.
Because of the steamy nature of the video, I think fans were almost more interested in the visuals than the song, at least initially, and who could blame them… that’s kind of the point of putting out a video like this.
It was directed by Wes Edwards and finds Pearce and Green grappling with the decision to see where the night takes them or to go their separate ways. It’s full of tension, temptation, and considering how sexy it is, it was somewhat surprising to see these two play themselves. Usually, with a video like this, unless you’re a couple like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, you would have actors do that part… but these two clearly weren’t afraid to go there, and I’m here for it.
During an interview with SiriusXM The Highway’s Macie Banks, Carly opened up about how the duet came to be, saying she texted Riley and asked him if he’d be interested in singing it with her, and within an hour, he was sending her voice memos of his parts:
“I love collaborations, obviously. I’ve also had a lot of success with collaborations, and I’ve gotten to collaborate with so many amazing people that I have a high bar for what I want. Obviously, Riley is Riley Green, you know, but to me, I’ve gotten to sing with him several times over the last several years, and he’s more acoustic driven in the way that he does music, he has this simple way of emoting that I really like.
It’s not over-produced, it’s very honest, it’s very real. And when we sing together, I was like, oh, you feel familiar to me in that way, and he felt the same. And so I just sent it to him. I texted him, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m sure that you get these a lot. I really feel like this song is special.’ And I’m not kidding, within five minutes he texted me back… it was immediate, and we had it recorded very fast.
He was like, sending me a voice memo an hour later singing his part. I feel like, the way that he sings this, is a piece of his character in his voice that I don’t think people have heard. He sounds so good on this song, and I think it’s really special.”
And of course, she also answered the million dollar question in terms of what it was like to film that sultry video with Riley as his love interest, and Carly jokingly said “somebody has to do it” so she was happy to oblige:
“Well… it’s a very sexy song. Somebody has to play the role of Riley’s love interest, I decided I could do it, if somebody needed somebody to do it.
Typically in our world, it’s like, if it’s not Tim and Faith, you just have other people act for you, and you’re kind of the performance. He was willing to go there with me, so we play the role, and it’s fun.”
And during a recent interview with Absolute Country Radio while overseas, Carly explained that it was a little bit awkward at first, and the production team had them jump right into it in terms of getting up close and personal right away.
She said that it was around noon on a random Tuesday and she needed some champagne to help her relax, and the funniest part of her story was sharing how she “felt the stache” because of how close they got. Of course, Riley is a fan-favorite among the ladies for obvious reasons, so I’m sure there are some hearts breaking while reading this, even though it was strictly professional:
“If somebody was gonna been a music video like that with Riley Green, I said, you know, I could sacrifice myself and do it. And honestly, and he would tell you the same thing, out first scene, when you’re watching the video and our faces are like, right here singing to each other. And you know, I know Riley, he’s my friend, we’re friendly, whatever, but not like that… they were like, okay guys, it’s like noon on a Tuesday, they’re like, alright, we’re gonna start with this.
They were like, get in there. And I was like, I need a bottle of champagne right now. And oddly, we both said, for about 30 seconds, it was like, this so awkward. Like how are we ever going to do this… and I think his mustache touched my lip, like oh my god… I mean, I felt the ‘stache. But after that, it was oddly totally fine. Not awkward, we were fine.
I did finish a bottle of champagne at the end of the day, so I guess it got easier for me because I was feeling better. There were only two moments where we literally lost it laughing. But yeah, I have to say, I knew, like I had lightning in a bottle when I was going to reveal him sitting next to me.”
She’s living every girls dream…
If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s certainly steamy:
“If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay”
