Carly Pearce opened up about an injury that “knocked my front teeth out” days before she was set to take the stage for the first time at the Country Music Association Awards.

Pearce, 35, shared the full story for the first time on TikTok and Instagram. The “Church Girl” artist said it happened on Halloween in 2020. Early in the night, she fell while walking down a set of stairs, and “it was one of those kind of falls that you don’t catch yourself, so I landed straight on my mouth. It knocked me out, and I remember waking up to my friend FaceTiming my mom to show her what had happened.”

The following day, Pearce, who shared a photo of the injury, realized it was a Sunday and the CMA event was approaching quickly. She spent the day with a “sweet dentist,” and “sweet plastic surgeon,” who “came in on their off days after Halloween to help me with my face. When we made it to the dentist, we realized that I had almost bit straight through my mouth, so I had to get skin removed in here, and get seven stitches put in my bottom lip. I spent the afternoon with a dentist, who was able to put a fake piece on each of my front teeth, and told me that I could come back after the CMAs to get root canals. I then went over to the plastic surgeon, and for the next week before the CMAs, I had to go to him every single day and he would lay compresses on my face and scrape.”

Pearce said she used Aquaphor, a healing ointment, on her face “all day, every day,” leading up to the CMAs. “Y’all, by the grace of God and Aquaphor and these amazing doctors, my face looked pretty normal to be able to go to the show, at least from far away. At one point during the show, my friend leaned over to me, that was my date, and she goes, ‘your lip is bleeding.’

“I performed my song,” Perace continued. She took the stage with “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” a duet originally released with Lee Brice, and performed at the CMAs with Lady A’s Charles Kelley. “When I was singing, I had a lisp. My teeth were that freaking loose. But I did it and I made it and it was all fine. I ended up winning Music Event of the Year [for ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ with Brice]. The events that had to all happen for me to make it to the show to then win, was a moment that I’ll never forget. I went and got three root canals the next morning. And I had to read about press and all of the people online talking about what a bad lip job I got done. I’ve been in Invisalign for the last five years. My teeth have been reconstructed on the bottom several times because they chip off. I can never bite straight on.”

Pearce has never publicly shared the full story on her social media accounts, but she shared some details around the time it happened. The Grammy-winning country artist told E! News that she fell, “knocked my two front teeth out,” and “had a bunch of stitches.” Pearce said she “looked completely different than what I looked like right now, and it was kind of scary because I knew I was going into the biggest week of my life. It looked really bad. It was scary. I was just really fortunate to get doctors that helped and knew the pressure I was under. But with every day, I was like, 'Please Lord, let my face heal so I can do this' because this is such a huge moment.” She added that she was “really grateful” after her first CMA performance and win. Watch her share the story below.

Corey Klug