Photo: Getty Images
Carly Pearce enlisted Ashley McBryde’s help on her latest single, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” — and she knew it would be a surefire collaboration. The two artists had been fans of one another, so teaming up with McBryde and Shane McAnally was a recipe for success. Pearce explained in a statement:
“Ashley and I have always been fans of each other, I think because we’re both kinda cut from the same cloth. You can’t listen to somebody sing like that – and I think she’d say the same thing about me – and not think we have some of the same influences and that we are going in the same direction. And I just wanted to do something that was a little unexpected, and I didn’t know if she would ever be up for writing. It’s really the only other artist, other than Luke Combs [who co-wrote “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Pearce], that I’ve ever asked to write a song with me, and we speak the same country music language.”
In the heartbreak duet, two women learn that they’re involved in the same love triangle with a cheating man, lamenting that they never imagined they’d end up in that situation. “As we grow up, we learn that not all love stories end happily ever after,” Pearce previously said of the song. Together, she and McBryde “sing our truths” in the song, which got a surprise acoustic version earlier this month. Relive the music video here: