CURRENT SINGLE: “What He Didn’t Do”
Carly Pearce heads into this Sunday’s CMT Music Awards with two nominations. One for CMT Performance of the Year with LeAnn Rimes and Ashley McBryde, for their performance of “One Way Ticket” during CMT Crossroads: LeAnn Rimes & Friends, and a nomination for Female Video of the Year for her stunning video for “What He Didn’t Do.” Rather than offer fans a literal interpretation of the lyrics of the song, Carly wanted the video to be more symbolic of the closing of her 29: Written in Stone chapter.
Carly Pearce – video concept 1:09
“So, Alexa Campbell, who directed the video, she directed ‘Never Wanted to be That Girl,’ and she actually is also my tour photographer. So, these are the first videos that she’s really done. And when we were out somewhere, I knew that I wanted her to do this video , more so because she kind of lived that portion of my life with me and just knew the ins and outs of where that story really came from. And she came to me and she kind of had a bit of a concept as far as, she said that she saw me underwater. And I feel like she and I kind of talked through that and kinda what that meant. And she showed me some examples of what she was kind of seeing. And we just came to the conclusion of this video would be so powerful to take a more artistic direction, and not just spell it out, having actors or myself play out the song, but really take it to a place of kind of showing that naïve girl that goes into the water, and kind of almost feels like she’s drowning, yet comes back out, almost like as a rebirth, crawling her way to the shore, and being better for the hardship in her life.”
When Carly showed the video to her mom, who is also her best friend, her mom got very emotional.
Carly Pearce – mom’s reaction to video :33
“Yeah, I played it for her, and I thought that she would really love it just because it’s so beautiful. And she started crying when it was over, and she told me that she didn’t like it. And I asked her why, and she said because it’s too real of what happened. And I was kind of like, ‘That’s great, Mom. That’s exactly what I was lookin’ for. Thank you.’ But as a mother I think she knew what I was trying to convey throughout the video, and I think it took her to a real emotional place of knowing that I really did feel like I was drowning.”
The CMT Music Awards are fan voted, and voting is still open at vote.CMT.com. In addition to being nominated for two awards, Carly will also be a performer on the awards, which will air live from Austin, Texas, this Sunday, April 2nd, 8 ET/7 CT on CBS.