Michael Ray Opens Up About Moving On After Divorce From Carly Pearce

Michael Ray opened up about how he’s moving on from hardships of his past, including his divorce from Carly Pearce — and he’s opting not to go through those hardships again.

Ray and Pearce, both successful country artists, split after Pearce filed for divorce in June of 2020. The couple began dating in 2018 and had been married for eight months when they decided to part ways last year. Now, the “Think A Little Less” artist says he’s coming out of 2021 better than when the year started. Ray’s latest EP, Higher Education, released last Friday (August 27), and nowhere on it will fans hear a song about the divorce or anything else Ray doesn’t want to relive.

In a new interview, Ray told Entertainment Tonight that he chooses to look at the last year of his life “like, I came out, I’m good.” The self-proclaimed “over-thinker” admitted that he endured some “dark times,” but believes “my problems are no bigger than anybody else's problems…And I think that's why this record doesn't have anything about it on it because I don't wanna relive it. I don’t wanna sing about it. I don't wanna go back to it. So why don't we all move forward and let's put out a record that shows the growth, not the stagnant part of life.”

Higher Education is a 7-track collection that followed Amos in 2019. Fans will already recognize “Just The Way I Am” — and its corresponding music video — and Ray’s current single from the EP, “Whiskey and Rain.” “Higher Education is about going through life and the hard knocks that make you who you are ... coming out of it stronger, having let it change you without hardening you,” Ray explained in a statement. “This album reminds me that even though we all go through hard times, we grow and we’re better for it.”