Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde Debut Acoustic Version Of Hit Heartbreak Song

Carly Pearce surprised fans with an acoustic version of her heartbreak ballad with Ashley McBryde. The latest version of “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” is out now, Pearce tweeted Friday morning (January 7).

The powerful duet sees the two artists involved in the same love triangle with a cheating man, never suspecting they’d end up there: “I never wanted to be that girl/ I never wanted to hate myself/ I thought this kind of lonely only happens to somebody else/ Bein' the other one when there's another one/ God, this feels like hell/ I thought I knew who I was, but it's gettin' hard to tell/ I never wanted to be that girl”

“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” is one of the tracks on Pearce’s latest album, 29: Written in Stone. Pearce previously told iHeartRadio of the extension of her “transformative” EP, in part: “…it opened my eyes to a lot of things in life. And I think that we have to understand that life is always going to be this kind of ever-evolving thing. And sometimes things that maybe we thought would turn out one way, turn out another…I feel wiser because of the really hard stuff that I went through. And I feel like I chose to let it refine me instead of define me. And there'll be things that I take with me forever.”

29: Written in Stone was one of many highlights that made 2021 “TRULY the best year of my life,” Pearce said. Another moment was winning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in November, and performing “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” with McBryde on the same night. Listen to the new acoustic version of the song here: