“I Didn't Like Her At First...”: Carly Pearce on Her Friendship with Kelsea Ballerini

Carly Pearce went from “I didn’t like her at first because she had a record deal and I didn’t”, when describing Kelsea Ballerini, to “What I have with her, I don’t need anyone else. It’s really special.” It’s not the most obvious beginning to a friendship that has now lasted more than a decade...!

Speaking to Anthony Mason on Alchemy, Pearce said she personally struggled with meeting Ballerini, as she had landed a record deal at just 19. “I was like, ‘Who’s this girl that’s 19 that’s already getting a record deal?’” Pearce had already been putting in the graft without much of the pay-off at first. She moved to Tennessee at 16 to perform six shows a day at Dollywood and then spent years in Nashville trying to get her own music heard. So, when she met a Ballerini who had already secured the opportunity she wanted, the jealousy was real. But, it didn’t last long.

They met through a female support group for young country artists, which they both have described as being therapy. Pearce became emotional during that first meeting and admitted she had no idea what she was doing. And it was that honesty that brought them together.

What’s nicer is Ballerini didn’t just say she supported Carly. She did something about it. When Ballerini launched her first headline tour in 2016, she invited the still unsigned Pearce to open on select dates. Carly was travelling with her band and equipment in a passenger van and barely getting any sleep. Ballerini saw how exhausted she was, she invited her onto the tour-bus to sleep before the next show. Not only did she put her on the bus , but she put her on the bill. A year later ‘Every Little Thing’ gave Carly the breakthrough she had spent a decade working to achieve.

Their friendship has since found its way into their music. Ballerini co-wrote ‘Finish Your Sentences’ recorded by Pearce, and went on to write ‘Diamondback’ with Pearce and others.

Ballerini was also one of the people Pearce turned to following her divorce in 2020. Rather than allowing her to feel ashamed, Ballerini encouraged Pearce to think about how telling the truth might help somebody else. That friendship, advice & honesty became what we know as 29, the album that launched Pearce's career into another echelon.

When Ballerini went through her own divorce two years later, Carly was there for her in return. In 2022, they finally recorded together, joining Kelly Clarkson for ‘You’re Drunk, Go Home’ before performing it at the CMA Awards. But it’s not just in the big moments that their friendship has shown itself. It’s been in the small moments too. When Pearce received criticism for removing a disrespectful heckler from one of her shows in 2024, Ballerini was one of the first people to text her and say she had her back.

Pearce has since watched her friend progress from performing to a few hundred people in clubs to selling out arenas, saying, “Nobody deserves it more.”

“We’ve been through a lot together,” Pearce told Mason. “I know I can go to her and she’s going to understand and vice versa.”

Then came the line that probably explains why the friendship has lasted. “Truthfully, what I have with her, I don’t need anyone else. It’s really special.”

Heartwarmingly, Ballerini has replied to the clip, gushing, “kindred hearts, people pleasers, spitfires, and over sharers that really just want to make music that let people feel. i loveeeee this woman. lifer.”

The artist Carly initially struggled to like became one of the first people to make space for her, long before the rest of country music caught up.