Carly Pearce.Photo: Allister Ann
The country star will not only attend this year’s Churchill Downs event, but she’ll also perform the National Anthem. “This will be the first time that I’ve actually gotten to go,” Pearce, 33, tells PEOPLE. “Being from Kentucky, this is definitely a really cool thing to get to be a part of.”
Carly Pearce.Allister Ann
“It’s just one of the most well-recognized events in our culture, and being from the state of Kentucky — I don’t know how many fellow Kentuckians have ever sung the Anthem, but hopefully not very many,” says Pearce. “And I can be one of the few.”
Pearce also seems to be ‘one of the few’ that doesn’t get too nervous about lending her voice to the legendary song.
“I am one of the weirdos that isn’t afraid to sing the National Anthem,” Pearce says with a laugh. “You either enjoy doing it or you don’t. I really enjoy singing it and it’s not something that scares me. I’m pretty comfortable with it. And I don’t know if that’s my background singing bluegrass where there’s a lot of acapella. I just think that I’m very aware of my voice, and I’m very aware of how to sing acapella.”
Carly Pearce.Jason Kempin/Getty
She’s also already sung the Anthem at several noteworthy events through the years.
“I’ve been fortunate to get to do it several times, most recently at the World Series,” she remarks. “It really feels like probably the coolest anthem that I could ever do — maybe besides the Super Bowl.”
Pearce lets out a laugh. “Maybe someday,” she says about her bucket list item. “I obviously have a lot more things that I want to do as an artist. I feel like these dreams that I had as a kid, the most extravagant dreams, pretty much all of them have come true.”
“I’m probably not going to wear the hat while I sing the Anthem,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll probably just wear the hat around.”
source: people.com
