Kimberly Perry Talks 'Empowering Moment' Going Solo While Pregnant With First Baby (Exclusive)

The Band Perry singer chats with ET and shows off her growing bump on the red carpet at the ACM Awards.

Kimberly Perry is having quite a moment. The pregnant singer stepped out on Thursday for the 2023 ACM Awards as she begins a new journey as a solo artist and mother-to-be. 

"The last couple years have been super transformative for me," she shared with ET's Rachel Smith. "Lots of changes, all so wonderful." 

The 39-year-old Band Perry alum secretly married Johnny Costello in 2021 and the couple has since moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Perry says she has "never lived" in Music City before. 

Now, she's busy promoting her first solo record, "If I Die Young Pt. 2," which offers a reinterpretation of her former band's 2010 breakthrough hit, while also gearing up to welcome her first child. Perry announced her pregnancy just last month. 

"My little baby boy is enjoying his first red carpet, his red carpet debut," Perry gushed on Thursday, noting that the little one was busy kicking around in her belly. "When I have adrenaline and I have butterflies, he like, mimics it." 

Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images

Perry is due to welcome her bundle of joy in August. But first, she'll release her debut solo EP, Bloom, in June. She told ET that she's proud to be "standing on my own two feet as a solo artist." 

"I feel like it's been a really empowering moment and for the first time, while I have loved being in a band since I was a kid with my two brothers, I'm going to think with just really a singular female voice," she shared. "I remember some songs we would put out, I go like, 'Can you say I want to be the only girl you love all your life, because there's two boys in the band?' And it's just been really like a cool moment to just think about my perspective and ... my experiences, and to get to be a vulnerable as a woman about those."

She's also eagerly awaiting the day that she can bring her growing family on the road. 

"I'm so ready to tour," she teased. "We're going to have a little bus baby."

In April, Perry shared the news of her pregnancy by posting a photo of herself, wearing a white dress, posing next to her button down-clad husband with her baby bump on full display.

"The best news of all the good news lately: I'm OVERFLOWING WITH JOY to share that Johnny and I are expecting our first baby in late August!!" she wrote. "We're absolutely beside ourselves with happiness and in awe of the Creator's plan."

"Building my own family is something I've dreamed about for as long as I can remember," she continued. "As a woman and as an artist, I've always felt like I had to make a choice between growing my career and growing life. But YALL - I'm doin' em both at the SAME TIME!! Here we go!"

Perry's baby announcement came on the heels of another piece of major news for the singer, that she and her brothers, Reid and Neil Perry, are taking a "creative break" from their band. 

"We wanted to let you know that the three of us have decided to take a creative break as a group and each focus on our individual creative pursuits," the sibling trio wrote in a March statement. "During this season we will continue to support each other as artists and family in all we do. Thank you for making our childhood dreams come true! Love you all. Kimberly, Reid and Neil."

The Band Perry released their debut album, The Band Perry, in 2010, which included their breakout single, "Hip to My Heart," and their most successful song to date, "If I Die Young." 

In 2013, the group followed up with their second album, Pioneer. Over the course of their career, the group also released EPs and singles, dropping their EP, Nite Swim, in 2019, which was also the last year the trio performed together as a group. 

RELATED CONTENT: 

Latest News