This Kentucky native is opening for country star Tim McGraw at Rupp. ‘Let’s go!’

Carly Pearce figures she was about 16 when she first took in a concert at Rupp Arena.

Even though country music and bluegrass already commanded her musical preferences, she and a few girlfriends drove down from their Kenton County home to attend a performance by pop celeb John Mayer. That’s when she made a promise to herself.

“We were all really young,” she recalled. “But as I sat up there in the nose bleeds, I remember thinking, ‘I want to play here one day.’”

Voila! Some 17 years later, the Grammy-winning songstress from the northern Kentucky haven of Taylor Mill is getting her wish. On Saturday, Pearce will open for mega country star Tim McGraw at Rupp.

“I saw so many concerts at Rupp Arena as a kid and as a teenager, but I’ve never gotten to play there. I’m about as Kentucky Proud as you can get. I have the state tattooed on my wrist, so let’s go!”

The realization of a Rupp show might summon a sense of nostalgia for her home state upbringing, but Pearce has little time for looking back this summer. The concert with McGraw coincides with the next major chapter in an ever-escalating country career — specifically, the release last week of her fourth studio album, “Hummingbird.”

The record is the follow-up to 2021’s “29: Written in Stone,” a record that both honored Kentucky inspirations rooted due East of Kenton County in the tune “Dear Miss Loretta” (which teamed Pearce with veteran Pikeville hitmaker Patty Loveless) and embraced such acclaimed peers as Ashley McBryde. A duet single with the latter, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” earned both artists a Grammy in 2023.

“I was a little nervous as to what came after ’29.’ It was so successful, but I tried not to put too much pressure on myself. As I started writing I realized that I had a lot to say and that a lot of healing and growth has happened in my life. (The celebrated producer of her first two albums, Michael Busbee, died from cancer in late 2019, and a brief marriage to fellow country singer Michael Ray collapsed in 2020). So I shaped this album into a collection of songs that represent the next phase of your life after you go through something that’s really hard.”

Why “Hummingbird”?

“Because a lot people say that when you see a hummingbird, it’s a sign that the healing process can begin and that good luck is on the way. I feel like fans have really helped me along on that journey. They have given me so much good luck and so much, just, peace in where I’m at. This record is a reflection of finding that joy again.”

“Hummingbird” came calling in a big way almost a year before its release, she said. In June 2023, the album’s first single, “We Don’t Fight Anymore” surfaced. A classic country portrait of communication breakdown between a couple, the song teamed Pearce with another Kentucky titan, Chris Stapleton, and subsequently earned a Grammy nomination.

“That was one of the greatest experiences I could ever have,” Pearce said. “As a songwriter, as an artist, it does not get any better than Chris Stapleton. I feel really lucky and honored that he lent his talents to this song. Years down the road, this will always be one of those moments I am the most proud of.”

The formation of Pearce’s own country profile might seem unconventional at first glance. Taylor Mill is hardly the Eastern Kentucky terrain that Stapleton and Loveless hail from. But Kenton County possessed its own sense of rural country inspiration. Coupled with feverish family support, Pearce ignited a Kentucky country spirit forged not in the East, but the North.

“I was playing every bluegrass jam, every writers round, every coffee shop I could find,” she said. ... “Those musicians taught me a lot as a young girl and showed me how to perform onstage, which has helped me as I continued on in this career at this level.

“My family has been there every step of the way, too, whether it was moving me to Pigeon Forge when I was 16 so that I could take a job working in a country show at Dollywood or making my costumes for the local talent shows. That later part would be my mom. Or it would be just driving me around anywhere and everywhere to perform. They knew this was my lifelong dream. I could not have done it without them.”

Pearce respectfully likened her Dollywood stay to a musical boot camp, a training ground for an aspiring singer to work, and work hard, within a professional performance environment.

“It was doing six shows a day, five days a week. I was a 16-year old, a sophomore in high school. I mean, it truly did teach me those fundamental working situations — the values, the chops for what I do now. It was a grueling schedule for a teenager, but once I started performing at the level I’m at now, it was like, ‘Oh, I’m used to working hard. This is fun.’ That experience was so key in my growth as an artist.

“I wound up getting a diploma in the mail from my high school because I was out of there after my freshman year. Singing was what I wanted to do.”

All those years after that John Mayer concert, after the tenure at Dollywood, Pearce will now be onstage for the first time at Rupp with Tim McGraw. As she is a huge fan of McGraw and his wife, country singer Faith Hill, the weight of such an occasion is not lost on her.

If you go

What: Tim McGraw/Carly Pearce

When: 7 p.m. June 15

Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.

Tickets: $39.50-$102.50 through www.ticketmaster.com