Carly Pearce says she “learned humility” by cleaning AirBnBs

Photo Courtesy of Big Machine RecordsCarly Pearce‘s debut single “Every Little Thing” is a bonafide hit, but as the 27-year-old tells the New York Post, she’s had a less-than-glamorous journey to the top.

Carly began performing at a young age, singing in talent shows at the age of eight and fronting a bluegrass band at age 11. By the time she was 16, she convinced her family to let her quit high school to work at Dolly Parton‘s theme park, Dollywood, in Tennessee.

“She’s such a positive, happy, friendly, sweet person,” Pearce says of Dolly. “Every day I went to work and was living in a fairy land. It was so not real life.”

But real life kicked in when Carly turned 19 and moved to Nashville, where she had to get a number of jobs to make ends meet.

“I worked at a mall, I cleaned Airbnbs. I learned humility — and that you’re never guaranteed anything,” she says of those days. “I’m not a big fan of people’s hair, and I had to clean sheets with hair on them, toilets, you name it. Nashville’s a very big hub of bachelor and bachelorette parties, so you do the math on that one.”