Country fans have been buzzing for days about the video that showsCarly Pearcegetting the surprise of her life when all-time idolDolly Partoninvites her to become a member of theGrand Ole Opry.
Pearce had been summoned to a Nashville studio to film what she thought was a promotional video forDollywood, Parton’s theme parkin Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where Pearce began singing professionally at age 16. But, Pearce says, she knew all wasn’t what it seemed to be when distinctively Dolly-esque footfalls caught her ear as she stood before the camera.
“I heard her high heels coming down the hall and I freaked out,” recalls the 31-year-old artist.
The video shows Pearce’s jaw appropriately drop — but still, she had no idea why the country legend had appeared. “I thought, oh my gosh, she’s going to do this commercial with me,” Pearce says. “This is so awesome. Like, we get to do this together. Surprise! Love it!”
Then out of the blue, Parton uttered what Pearce reverently refers to as “the ‘O’ word.”
“And I was like, excuse me?” Pearce says. “Why are you asking me about the Opry? And then she used the ‘O’ word with ‘you should be a member.’ And I was like, Dolly, if you’re not about to say what I think you’re going to say, I don’t know what I’m going to do to you.”
Pearce’s love for the Opry is well known among her fans and the entire country community. She grew up listening to its weekly broadcasts and learning about its stars from her country-loving grandparents. When she first visited the hallowed Opry House as a teenager, she says, she knew that someday she had “to make it into the circle” at center stage. It would be another decade before that dream came true.
Since then, the ACM- and CMA-award winner has become an Opry mainstay, performing another 84 times. Taking the next step to become a member — a highly coveted honor that assures an artist a lifetime stage — was, naturally, her new dream, but she was trying to stay patient.
“I’ve played so many times,” Pearce allows, “but I also am realistic … I’m still very young in my career, and I’ve never wanted to get to a place where I felt like I deserved it. I just was going to continue to do what I’ve always done, which is just put my head down and work. I was hopeful, and I felt like I was eventually going to get there.”
Dolly Parton and Carly Pearce.Alexa Campbell
But the video shows that nothing could have prepared Pearce for the moment when Parton announced: “I came here to tell you [that] you are now an official member of the Grand Ole Opry!”
Pearce can be seen in the video collapsing into a crouch, her face buried in her hands as she begins to sob uncontrollably. Parton tries unsuccessfully to coax Pearce upright, even playfully swatting her back. But Pearce remains bent over, in the throes of a textbook version of an ugly cry. The video then makes an abrupt cut to show Pearce, standing with her arm draped over Parton’s shoulder but only nominally more composed for the final moments.
At the press conference, Pearce succinctly confirmed why so much of her reaction was clearly edited out: “I was hysterical.”
Even after the camera stopped rolling, she reports, she still hadn’t pulled herself together when Parton — ever the entrepreneur — wanted to introduce Pearce to her new venture,Dolly perfume.
“I had tears everywhere and snot everywhere,” Pearce recalls, “and she walked over to me, and she had her new perfume in her hand, and said, ‘Honey, do you want some of my perfume?’ And then she goes, ‘Smell my neck.’ And I was like, ‘Dolly, I have just cried for the last 20 minutes. I am afraid I’m going to get snot on you!'”
No doubt the Opry’s planners knew the impact that Parton would have on Pearce when they recruited her to extend the invite.
Says Pearce: “She, to me, is just the epitome of class and the epitome of a country queen. And the fact that she took time! … She’s never asked somebody to be a member … in her 50 years as a member. So that makes it even more special that she did that for me.”
Pearce says her first phone call with the news was to her parents, who’ve “sacrificed so much in their marriage to make this country music dream happen for me … Without them, I couldn’t have done it.”
And since the invitation was announced during Pearce’s Opry performance last Tuesday, she’s been flooded with congratulations from friends, colleagues and fans. The biggest surprise, she says, was a phone call from Country Music Hall of Fame memberBarbara Mandrell,a 49-year Opry member.
“I’ve never met her,” Pearce says, “and she had this long conversation with me about becoming a member and how excited she was for me and just giving me some of her insight.”
Trisha Yearwood,a 22-year Opry member, reached out with a text. “It’s just so crazy to have these women that I’ve really looked up to that are country music royalty wrapping their arms around me,” says Pearce.
The formal Opry induction will be on its stage on Aug. 3, and Pearce says, she’s already “planning the biggest party of my life. … I’d be lying if I said I don’t already have my dress — because I do.”
The event is just the latest in a series of career-making accomplishments that Pearce has achieved in only the past year, including a CMA award; two ACM awards; a No. 1 song (for herLee Briceduet, “I Hope You’re Happy Now”); and a critically acclaimed EP,29.
Courtesy Big Machine Records
She’s now readying even more new music for release, and she’s about to go on tour withLady A. After the long months of quarantine, Pearce says she can’t wait to entertain the audiences that have built her career.
“I am so excited to get to say thank you in person,” she says. “All of these things are happening, and now I get to go back and just say thank you.”
source: people.com
