Even big music stars like Kelsea Ballerini still get butterflies.
When it comes to co-hosting the 2022 CMT Music Awards with Marvel actor Anthony Mackie on April 11, the country music singer confessed she's more nervous about performing at the show.
"What I'm supposed to be good at is singing, so I have a lot more pressure on myself to perform well because that's my job. And I'm like, ‘If I mess up reading a prompter, that's not what I'm great at, so that's okay,'" she revealed in an exclusive interview with E! News' Daily Pop on April 7. "So, I feel a little bit less pressure with the talking part. It's the singing part that I'm like, ‘If I mess that up, then I'm firing myself.'"
Luckily, her husband, musician Morgan Evans, will be backstage, supporting her throughout her big night.
"He's very steady, he's very calm, and I'm like the Energizer bunny. I'm like always like, ‘Ah, what's next,'" she said. "He's very good at keeping me steady. Especially on a night like Monday, it's gonna be needed."
Along with her upcoming hosting gig, the singer's first new single release in a year, "Heart First," officially drops at midnight on April 8.
"I've just been working so hard on what this next chapter is gonna be and sound like. My last single, it was called ‘Half of My Hometown' and it was a ballad about leaving my hometown at 15 to pursue music, to do this," she said. "And now it's time to zig-zag back to the other part of what I do, which is just ‘bop.' It's a 'bop,' y'all."
Like many popular artists, Ballerini is excited to be hitting the road for some shows this summer with her adorable pup Dibs, especially after her tour bus got a total makeover on Netflix's Get Organized with The Home Edit.
"I've been touring pretty non-stop—obviously, except for the last few years—since I was 20," she said. "Now I have my own bus, so everything's pink and smells good."
As for what's next for Ballerini, she is looking to take a page out of Dolly Parton's book, having recently performed alongside the music icon at the 2022 ACM Awards.
"She's a songwriter, she's a singer, she's a businesswoman, she's an activist, she owns amusement parks, she's an actress," Ballerini said. "Looking to someone like her, it just helps me go, ‘You can be more than one thing and that can be celebrated.'"
With all that Parton has accomplished throughout her legendary career, there was one thing Ballerini got her to do that she had never done before: make a TikTok.
"Not to toot my own horn, but that was the only TikTok Dolly has ever done. I asked her very nicely," Ballerini revealed. "I'm from East Tennessee, so not only is she such a country music icon, but I grew up going to Dollywood. She's just everything, you know?"
The 2022 CMT Music Awards air Monday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.