Music

Carly Pearce Surprises Fan Injured in Car Wreck After Her Concert

Carly Pearce‘s new 29 album may detail her pain and suffering, but as release day neared, she was spreading joy. The “Next Girl” singer dropped into a fan’s Zoom to raise her up after a devastating car accident.

Danielle Sparkman shared a clip of the Zoom conversation on social media, explaining how the moment was “one of the coolest experiences to come out of one of the worst situations.” Pearce appears to have just finished playing the 23-year-old a song from her new EP, released on Friday (Feb. 19). She adds that she’ll be donating to her GoFundMe.

Talking to Taste of Country, Sparkman explains that the accident happened as she was heading home to Memphis after Pearce’s Feb. 13 show at the Listening Room in Nashville. She swerved to avoid a car that stopped suddenly in front of her and crashed into a tree along the side of the highway. A broken shoulder and lacerations on her arms and face are the worst of her injuries. None should leave permanent damage.

At that GoFundMe page, the Tennessean explains that she is a student who waits tables for money and she’s not prepared to absorb the costs of the medical bills, which included two ambulance rides and CT scans. Pearce donated $1,000 to her goal of $10,000.

Sparkman says “Careless” and a new song called “Day One” are her favorite songs. Someone from the singer’s team noticed a meet and greet photo from the Listening Room show and her picture of her wrecked car and reached out, setting in motion a call that left her feeling nervous but grateful.

“Grateful that someone would care so much as to go out of their way to check up on me, especially on the day before their biggest album release ever,” Sparkman explains in her email. “I think country music is the most inclusive and caring group of people and if this doesn’t show it then I don’t know what does.”

While Pearce sings of heartbreak and devastation on her new album, she’s mentally in a better place today. Talking to Sparkman, she assures her she’ll recover too, a sentiment those who follow either of them on Twitter quickly agreed with. The longtime fan has often tweeted about the “I Hope You’re Happy Now” singer, as well as other female country stars including Shania Twain.

Pearce’s new project is her first since her self-titled album from 2020, and the first since her divorce from singer Michael Ray last summer. Since then she’s only spoken in broad terms about what went wrong, but admits most of the songs on the new EP were inspired by the relationship. Early response to the music has been positive, with “Next Girl” becoming one of her fastest climbing songs on country airplay charts and the album taking hold of the No. 1 spot on iTunes within hours. The officially rankings won’t be known for another week.

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