Carly Pearce was invited to become an Opry member by country legend Dolly Parton.
The “Next Girl” singer was surprised with the invite on June 17 while she thought she was filming a promotional clip for Dollywood. However, that was not the case, Parton herself shocked the singer when she appeared to give her the invite of a lifetime.
“We set this up so I can kind of walk in on you cause I wanted to surprise you,” Parton said. “First of all, I just wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. Do you know she started singing at Dollywood when she was 16 years old. You do remember don’t you. I know that they told me that you have been on the Grand Ole Opry, eighty times, you’ve performed.”
“Oh my goodness, I’m just trying to follow in your footsteps,” Pearce gushed.
“Well you should be a member of the Grand Ole Opry. What’s wrong with them? Well, I came here to tell you that you are now an official member of the Grand Ole Opry,” Parton said as Pearce got emotional. “It’s official! It’s official!”
“Dolly! Are you guys serious?” Pearce said in disbelief.
The news was announced on Tuesday evening (June 22) as Pearce stepped onto the Opry stage for the 85th time in her career.
See the surprising moment below.
SURPRISE! @carlypearce has been invited to become the next member of the @opry ✨💖 Carly started her music career singing at @Dollywood at the age of 16, so it’s only fitting that @DollyParton invited her to become a member herself. Congrats Carly, so well deserved 🥰 pic.twitter.com/WuD2z1Qm8Y
— Circle All Access (@CircleAllAccess) June 23, 2021
“I look at my heroes as Dolly, Reba, Faith, Trisha, all of them being members of the Opry and all of them being key parts of our community. And to me, the highest honor you can have within our community and within our genre is to be asked to be a member,” Pearce previously shared. “I hope that 50 years down the road I’m one of the faces of the Opry. I want to be on one of those buses the way Carrie [Underwood] is or Dolly is where it says ‘Grand Ole Opry’ and you associate them with it. That’s how I want to be and that’s how I want the Opry to be attached to me.”
The singer made her Opry debut on May 30, 2015.
Pearce will officially be inducted as the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry on August 3, 2021.
