Carly Pearce Looks To These Music Icons For Inspiration

Carly Pearce had some amazing career moments in 2022, and as she looks to 2023 and what her future holds, she looks to two country music icons for inspiration and ideas.

Carly recently told us of her upcoming year, "Obviously, at the top of my list is creating great music. I saw how much that changed everything for me. At the end of the day, what we do is put out music, and that's what kind of continues on our trajectory of what happens next. So, I think making this next record as good or better as 29 is super important to me."

She added, "But I think past just the music stuff, I want to be the women that I love, the Dolly's, the Reba's. They're household names. So, I want to figure out what is my version of that. You know, is that doing something outside of music? Is that just expanding and kind of stretching? I know I can do music, but what else can I do within that umbrella of just challenging myself?"

Pearce has been working on the follow-up to her 29: Written in Stone album. After some time off to celebrate the holidays with her family, she'll play a handful of dates in January, including joining Luke Bryan's "Crash My Playa" event in Mexico, before she hits the road with Blake Shelton for his "Back to the Honky Tonk Tour," beginning on February 16th.

Carly hosts the CMA Country Christmas on ABC, which will re-air this evening (12/13). A few years back, she told us of her Christmas traditions with her family in Kentucky. She noted, "I think just the tradition of being with family, always going to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve, and opening presents and going to midnight Christmas Eve service."

A few days ago, Pearce posted to Instagram about the ABC Christmas special, writing, "I had the BEST time hosting & performing on @cma Christmas!! Y'all tune in TONIGHT 9/8c on @abcnetwork #CMAChristmas."

The 2022 CMT Artists of the Year special will air tonight (10/14) on CMT. Filmed on Wednesday night (10/12) in Nashville, CMT honored Kane Brown, Walker Hayes, Luke Combs, Carly Pearce, and Cody Johnson as the five artists of the Year.

They also honored Alan Jackson as the CMT Artist of a Lifetime and Lainey Wilson as the CMT Breakout Artist of the Year.

The "Artists of the Year" is determined by what acts dominated the last 12 months in country music across all CMT platforms and notched number-one albums and singles.

In a press release back in September , CMT's Senior Vice President of Production said, "We are honored to recognize the astounding achievements of this illustrious group of artists over the past Year. Carly, Cody, Luke, Kane, and Walker all represent the vibrant future of the country music format as they defy convention and blaze new trails, breaking industry records and genre barriers. We can't wait to celebrate their extraordinary accomplishments alongside their fellow artists and friends."

Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, and Walker Hayes are first-time CMT Artists of the Year, while Kane Brown and Luke Combs were each honored for the third time (2019, 2021 & 2022).