Maddie & Tae believe "Jesus took the wheel" (their pun, not ours) when Carrie Underwood asked them to join her for her 2019 Cry Pretty Tour 360. The country duo says they're grateful for the prayers that their family and friends sent up while they were waiting to learn if they'd been chosen for the trek.

"As we all know, the last couple years have been kind of tricky for us," Marlow recently told The Boot and other reporters, reflecting on the professional struggles she and duo partner Tae Dye have faced recently. When Maddie & Tae heard Underwood was searching for opening acts, Marlow remembers thinking, "We're just not, like, the 'shiny penny'; it's just not our time yet ...

"But then we got word that we were in consideration," she adds -- and that's when the pair immediately enlisted the help of their "prayer warriors."

"[Tae] called all her family; I called my grandma, my parents, everyone," Marlow says. "We would pray before shows. [We knew] this would be a game-changer for us."

Adds Dye, "We knew that we weren't the obvious choice" with so many other up-and-coming women in country music available for the job. So Maddie & Tae were shocked when they were chosen, along with Runaway June, to be Underwood's opening acts.

"After such a challenging couple of years, to get that ...," Marlow reflects. She admits that the reality of the situation hasn't completely set in yet, but she and Dye are grateful that Underwood believes they're able to hold their own on a tour.

"The cool thing about it is that Carrie actually said she didn't pick us and Runaway June because we were women, she picked us because she genuinely is a fan of our music and we deserve to be there," Marlow says. "She has always been supportive of women ... It's a really big statement."

Underwood's tour is scheduled to kick off on May 1, 2019, in Greensboro, N.C. Currently, the trek is planned to run through the end of October.

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