Carly Pearce opened up about the “polarizing” response to her faith-focused single with a compassionate message.

Pearce, 35, caught up with Senior Music Editor Joseph Hudak on a new episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, which premiered on Wednesday (February 25). The Grammy-winning artist spoke about her latest two singles, “Dream Come True” and “Church Girl.” Pearce wrote “Dream Come True,” which arrived in November 2025, with Lauren Hungate, Tofer Brown and Emily Weisband. The vulnerable single is “about the sacrifices we make when chasing our dreams.” Cameron Bedell, Seth Ennis and Carter Faith wrote “Church Girl,” which made its debut last month. Pearce said she hopes “this song meets you wherever you are and gives you a sense of love and acceptance, and not judgement.”

Responses to “Church Girl” ranged, Hudak noted in the conversation with Pearce.

“I felt like, especially just in this new chapter of music for me, I really want to be bold,” Pearce said in a clip shared on Instagram. “And I think as you grow into your life, and you have more experience, you know, I’m not 25 anymore. I’m a woman, and I’m in that phase of my life where things are becoming more clear for me as far as what I want to stand for, what I want to say, and I want to be bold. And I don’t want to be — you know, the people in history that I loved, they are unapologetic, even if it made some people mad or not.

“I think it was surprising for people because my faith is so important to me. And, you know, you would think maybe somebody who’s not a devout Christian would sing this song, but that’s what I liked about it,” she continued. “I want to say this because I haven’t really said it publicly. It’s not that I’m condoning you to go get wasted, and be high out of your mind, and do drugs and have sex with a bunch of people, and go, ‘…it’s fine. I’m not doing anything wrong.’ I’m not condoning reckless behavior. But I’m also thinking about, you know, the 15-year-old boy in school that maybe is questioning his sexuality and he feels like he can’t be himself because I have friends that have had to hold that secret, and it’s hard to watch. I’m singing this song for somebody who, maybe, you know, has sexual purity trauma. I did. Where you’re told, ‘no, that’s bad,’ when you’re a child, and then you have to grow up and figure that out for yourself. Or what if you tried to save yourself for marriage, and it wasn’t the marriage that you thought? …Jesus says you’re not supposed to get divorced. Really? Well, I know the marriage that I had wasn’t what Jesus wanted for me.”

Pearce went on to talk about the universal experience of making sacrifices in life, including the ones she made to chase her dream of moving to Nashville, Tennessee. The Kentucky-born artist teased her upcoming studio album as she spoke about the songs setting the stage for this chapter.

“It’s done. It’s done,” Pearce said when Hudak asked about her fifth studio album. “What ‘Dream Come True’ did for me is it opened the door for me to really return to the origin of music for me, which is Appalachian, classic country, Loretta Lynn meets The Judds meets Alison Krauss. You know, that’s where I grew up. I worked with a producer that I’ve known for a long time but it’s the first time he’s produced me. His name’s Ben West. And he just captured, to me, the essence of who I am. I kept going back to 29 because I feel 29 was me at my core. To me, this feels like 29: Part Two. and there’s a lot of layers to me that I don’t think people — I think they just assume, ‘oh, she’s the heartbreak singer,’ or ‘oh, she sings about divorce.’ Yeah, I do. but I also sing about a lot of things that women go through. …Those parts of your story, they’re never gone. I don’t want to shy away from my story,” Pearce addd later. “I’m evolving.”

Pearce recently stirred eagerness for an announcement when she cleared her entire Instagram account and replaced it with one photo. She confirmed on Tuesday morning that something is happening on Thursday morning (February 26) at 9:30 a.m.

Find Pearce’s full Nashville Now interview here.

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Brooke Taylor