Photo: Getty Images
Carly Pearce and her best friend cherished a full-circle moment together when the Grammy Award-winning artist returned to her home state over the weekend.
Pearce, 34, remembered the night she and her friend, Kara, ventured to Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. The pair sat in the last row of one of the highest sections during that John Mayer concert. Nearly two decades later, Pearce took the stage at the same venue. She performs on Saturday night (June 15) on Tim McGraw’s “Standing Room Only Tour.”
“When I was 16 years old, my best friend and I drove down to Rupp Arena to see John Mayer and sat in the very last row of section 223,” Pearce wrote in her caption on Instgram as she shared photos on Sunday (June 16), including one of herself and Kara sitting in section 223. “During the show, all I did was wonder what it would be like to play that stage. Fast forward, 18 years later.. my best friend and I went back to our same seats the night I made it to that stage before the show. I play a lot of places, but nothing will ever beat the feeling of playing at home. Thank you, Kentucky 💙”
Pearce noted in a video on TikTok that Saturday night’s show was “the very first time” she performed at Rupp Arena. The performance arrived shortly after Pearce released her highly-anticipated new studio album, hummingbird, a 14-track project that she co-produced. The album follows her hit 2021 project, 29: Written in Stone.
“I hope that you see that no matter where you’re at, you’re right on time,” Pearce, who recently shared that she would alter her live shows because of a heart condition, said the night before her album released. “Don’t let anybody tell you that just because you’re not living the ‘American dream’ or ‘society’s standards’ that anything’s wrong with you. It’s OK to not have it all figured out. You can still be happy through that, and I feel like what I have learned more than anything is that God gave me a really big story. A story that, if I’m honest, I don’t know that I really wanted. But I have owned it in the last three years, and I’m proud of it, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come, and I just can’t wait for you guys to hear hummingbird.”
Remaining “Standing Room Only Tour” Dates:
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