Carrie Underwood got candid about a difficult period in her life ahead of co-hosting the 2019 CMA Awards later this month. The country superstar opened up about the tough time she went through in between the release of her most recent album, Cry Pretty , and her 2015 release, Storyteller , as she admitted that she’s undergone a lot of “growth” over the past several months that have followed some personal tragedies.
“I feel like between Storyteller and Cry Pretty , there was definitely a lot of growth for me as a person – emotional growth and spiritual growth and my family,” Carrie said, per Pop Culture , while speaking about her nomination for Album of the Year for Cry Pretty at the CMA Awards.
Notably, Carrie emotionally revealed last year that she and her husband Mike Fisher had suffered through three miscarriages before falling pregnant with her now 9-month-old son Jacob. In November 2017, she also suffered from a nasty fall outside her home in Tennessee which left her with a broken wrist and multiple stitches to her face after busting open her lip on a step.
Referring to her struggles and how they influenced the album and the overall process of creating new music, Carrie — who also co-produced the album — said that with her latest release she was all about “taking more ownership in my thoughts and my feelings and my wants and my creative abilities, and just taking more ownership over all of those things.”
The mom of two also spoke openly about how important it is for her to take some time away from the spotlight and live her life with her husband and their sons in order to have things to write about when it’s time to get to work on another album.
She said that she wants to “completely immerse” herself in whatever she’s doing, which is why she goes home to Tennessee to be a wife and a mom in between album cycles and tours.
“I like to go on tour and when I’m out, I’m out. We are working hard. We’re killing it. We’re doing what we do. When I write, I want to write,” she said.
“For me as a mom and as a wife and as a friend and daughter and all of those things, it’s just important to take a minute to live a life worth writing about,” the 36-year-old “Southbound” singer added.
In addition to her Album of the Year nomination, Carrie is also up for Female Vocalist of the Year and the big Entertainer of the Year award. Miranda Lambert recently threw her support behind her friend to win the latter and even got teary while discussing why she was voting for her.
Carrie will be co-hosting the awards — taking place on November 13 — with Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire. This year’s show will mark the first time she’s not co-hosted with Brad Paisley in more than 10 years.
