Happy birthday to Carly Pearce! She turns 35 on April 24, so in honor of her big day, we are uncovering four little-known facts about the country music superstar.
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1. Carly Pearce used to clean Airbnbs.
When Pearce moved to Nashville, with dreams of becoming a country music singer, she still needed to pay her bills. So while honing her craft as a songwriter and performer, she made money by cleaning Airbnbs, a job she admits she loathed.
"I had to make ends meet. I had to pay my rent," Pearce recalls (via iHeartRadio). Pearce adds that she also had cats to feed, which is why she cleaned Airbnbs.
"People are NASTY! Gross!," she says. "I would clean these massive homes, where bachelor and bachelorette parties would be, and I would have to bake cookies for them and leave them. Oh, I did all kinds of things!"
2. Carly Pearce is the first artist Dolly Parton invited to be a Grand Ole Opry member.
Pearce dreamed for years of being a member of the Grand Ole Opry, a dream that came true in 2021. But her invitation also made history. Pearce got her start performing at Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park. So it seemed only fitting that Parton would personally extend the invitation, something Parton had never done before.
"When one of ours has a special moment, it's an honor to be part of that," Parton says (via People). "Carly is a real songwriter and bright heart - and I loved getting to ask her to do something so very special."
3. Carly Pearce's arms are double-jointed.
Pearce can do strange things with her arms, something her band and crew don't necessarily appreciate. In a fan event ahead of one of Pearce's concerts, Pearce shows off the weird way she can move her arms, even though it grosses some of her employees out.
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Pearce quit school when she was 16 to move away from her Kentucky home so she could work at Dollywood. But while she didn't attend traditional school, due to her grueling work schedule, she did finish high school on her own.
"I convinced my parents to let me quit high school and homeschool," Pearce tells SmoothRadio.com. "And we moved almost five hours away to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where Dollywood is. And I did six shows a day, five days a week, and I finished my schooling in between, and I got my diploma in the mail."
