Carly Pearce Slid Into Chris Stapleton’s Wife’s DMs to Make Their Duet Happen

Carly Pearce had to get creative in order to make her Chris Stapleton duet, "We Don't Fight Anymore," happen. Instead of proposing a collaboration through more conventional channels, like her team or record label, she went straight to the source.

"I think the best thing you can do is go to somebody's wife," Pearce says with a laugh in a new interview with SiriusXM The Highway. "So I DM'd [Stapleton's wife] Morgane on Instagram, and I said, 'Hey, I know this is super weird, but I have this song that I really want Chris to hear. Do you mind if I send it?'"

Of course, Morgane isn't just Stapleton's wife. She's a talented vocalist in her own right, who tours with her country superstar husband and frequently appears with onstage singing harmony. Her opinion carries significant weight with Stapleton when it comes to his musical and career decisions, so it meant a lot to Pearce when she heard back from Morgane.

"She was like, 'Girl, call me tomorrow.' So I call her, and she was like, 'You know, we get asked to do a lot of stuff, and we'll listen, but can we be honest if it's not the right fit, or whatever, right timing?'" Pearce goes on to say. "I was like, 'Of course. Just let him hear it.'"

She sent the song over, and just one day before the 2023 Grammy Awards — a ceremony where Pearce would win her first Grammy trophy for "Never Wanted to Be That Girl," a duet with Ashley McBryde — the singer got a response.

"I got a text from her saying that he would love to do it," Pearce recounts. "So it was just, like, the most mind-blowing weekend of my life. And he called me and asked me what I wanted him to do on it, and I said, 'I want you to go do whatever you feel.'"

The end result — which marks the first new music Pearce has released since putting out her landmark 29: Written in Stone album — is a chilling meditation on love grown cold. Pearce leads the ballad, with Stapleton providing gentle harmonies in the chorus and a searing vocal solo in the bridge of the song.

"As the song progresses, you're going to see why Chris is one of the most special vocalists ever, because he added such an element to this song, and such a perspective, that when we were writing it, we didn't even know it needed. But now that song could not be without him," Pearce concludes.