Carly Pearce shared how she found out about her recently-diagnosed heart condition when she appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Thursday morning (June 13).
Pearce, 34, posted a health update in late May to announce that she’d been diagnosed with a heart condition called pericarditis and would have to alter her performances to control her heart rate. Mayo Clinic describes the condition as swelling and irritation of the tissue surrounding the heart. Pearce said she was “working on it,” when Kelly Clarkson asked her about the heart issue.
“I had a heart condition called pericarditis, and you’re supposed to keep your heart rate down as you are recovering, which, as an artist and a performer and somebody who just released a record — it’s been scary,” Pearce said. “And I wanted to be honest with it because my shows look a little bit different right now, and also, just, I’m a young, healthy person that takes care of themselves, and my body told me something was wrong. And so, I just want people to listen to their body because you never know.
“I thought I was dying,” she continued, when Clarkson asked how she discovered the heart condition. “It was like crazy, crazy chest pain. I thought I was having a heart attack. ...it’s crazy because I’m a runner and I’m like, ‘oh, my heart’s healthy.’ I don’t know.”
Pearce recently took the main stage on the final night of CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee. She’s also on tour with Tim McGraw, and spoke with Clarkson about what it was like to work out with him. Last month, Pearce posted a video trying to lift a tire that McGraw uses to exercise while he’s on the road. Days later, she shared another clip that captured the moment McGraw helped teach her how to lift it.
“What’s funny about this is I did this once, and he was like… he literally is the most humble person, and I was like, ‘so, how far do you flip this tire?’ Because I think I, like, broke my back trying to flip it,” Pearce said as Clarkson played a snippet of that video on her show. “He was like, ‘oh, you know, just from here to that bus.’ And it was like a football field. I was like, ‘OK, cool. Well you keep doing that, and I’ll keep eating cookies on my bus while I watch you work out.’”
Pearce — who released her latest studio album, hummingbird, on June 7 — said last month that she would “alter my shows a little bit,” to keep her heart rate under control. She also encouraged others to “take care of your body and listen to it.”
Remaining “Standing Room Only Tour” dates:
June 13 — Biloxi, MS
June 14 — Atlanta, GA
June 15 — Lexington, KY
June 20 — Philadelphia, PA
June 21 — Baltimore, MD
June 22 — Raleigh, NC
June 27 — Phoenix, AZ
June 28 — Los Angeles, CA
June 29 — Sacramento, CA