WATCH: Carly Pearce’s ‘Dear Miss Loretta’ Is a Letter to the Icon

Carly Pearce has never met Loretta Lynn, but she thinks they have some things in common. The younger country artist’s “Dear Miss Loretta” is a letter of admiration to the country icon.

Pearce debuted “Dear Miss Loretta” during a Saturday night (March 20) set at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. On Twitter, she explains that she has always loved and admired Lynn, but that “it wasn’t until the last year that I really FELT what she’s sang about all these years — and just how much we really do have in common.”

“Your songs were all fun ’til I lived them myself … Now I know why you sing that way,” Pearce sings. In the chorus, she explains, “I ain’t a coal miner’s daughter, but my grandmother was,” adding in a final chorus, “I ain’t a coal miner’s daughter, but I’ve sung it all my life.”

“Dear Miss Loretta, we both grew up too fast / And I wish you could tell me how you made it last,” she continues in “Dear Miss Loretta.” “… I ain’t been a widow, but I’ve been an ex-wife / And I hear your truth and I feel your pain …”

To the Opry crowd, Pearce remarked that while she has not yet met the icon, ”Hopefully I can ask you all this in person someday, but for now, I’ll sing it to you.”

Lynn, who will turn 89 in April, released her 50th studio album, Still Woman Enough, on Friday (March 19). Peace, meanwhile, released a brand-new project of her own, 29, in February, just about one year after dropping her self-titled sophomore album. One of the songs was inspired by the death of her producer, the Grammy winner Busbee, while several others draw from her divorce from fellow country artist Michael Ray.

See Loretta Lynn Through the Years