“AMERICAN Idol” judge Simon Cowell, a harsh and serious critic, cut short the audition of country singer-songwriter Carrie Underwood when she tried her luck in the singing competition two decades ago.

“You know Simon hates country music,” Carrie was told.

Yet, that didn’t affect her song choice for her audition. “It was still me and one of the songs I love,” Carrie said.

That was in 2005, when Carrie dauntlessly went in front of Simon, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson at the start of the fourth season of “American Idol.”

Carrie travelled all the way from Checotah, Oklahoma on her mom’s convertible and they drove six hours to St. Louis, Missouri at the Edward Jones Dome, where the “American Idol” auditions took place.

“We didn’t have enough money to fly,” shared Carrie, who was contestant 14887 when she auditioned for the talent competition. “I never got to experience a lot of things that a lot of other people have. I never got to travel far. I’ve never flown at all.

To this day, Carrie fondly kept that 14887 sticker number pasted in her in one of her albums at home. “It’s tattooed on my brain,” she said. “I should get a tattoo of that somewhere on my body.”

“I was always a singer,” disclosed Carrie, who loves country singer Martina McBride. “It was in me. I call myself a bird. I was always singing anywhere, any chance I could.”

The then curly-haired Carrie rendered Bonnie Rait’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for her “American Idol” auditions.

Her vocals apparently immediately impressed the judges, although she was clueless why Simon stopped her in the middle of her audition, before she could even get through the chorus.

“Okay, that was very good,” Simon abruptly cut her short. “I’m surprised that we haven’t found a good country singer in this competition yet. I think you’re very good and you should stay good in what you’re doing.”

Carrie had no idea how that then 21-year-old hopeful was able to muster up enough guts to walk into a room and audition in front Simon Paula, Randy and the world.

“Simon’s comment surprised me,” admitted Carrie. “He commented to just keep being me. He deserved credit for that. He saw a country artist and the value of a country artist for that.

“Everybody watching in front of the camera, when you think about that, it was just mind-boggling. That was really me and that didn’t affect my song choice for the audition.

“I guess the good Lord gave me enough strength. It’s destiny and we all have one. It’s written and we all have to follow it. I was in front of those judges who decided my fate. I was a ‘baby.’ I was 21 years old.”

In her “American Idol” journal, Carrie wrote, “I just have to keep in mind that it will all be worth it and the life that I’ve started will be great and that this has all been my choice and something that I wanted since I was a little girl.

“I have some great things in front of me. Right now, I’m just trying to live in the moment and appreciate it all. I never dreamed that all of these would happen to me, seeig the world in front of me.”

Before she was proclaimed the fourth season winner of “American Idol” in 2005, besting Bo Bice who was the runner-up, sold 85 million records, won eight Grammy Awards and toured the world, Carrie lived a country life in Oklahoma, where she fed hay to the cows every morning.

She was born in the town of Muskogee, raised in Checotah, graduated from the Northwestern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She got her diploma, belatedly, though, when she joined the Class of 2018 for the graduation rites.

Carrie comes full circle today as she returns to “American Idol” and brings her musical know-how to the judges’ table on the new season of the “American Idol,” that starts March 9 on ABC.

“It is really incredible to think, a few decisions we can make in life, can completely alter our trajectory,” Carrie said.

She will sit in the middle of Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, as they will be joined by long-time host Ryan Seacrest. “Now, on the other side of things, as a judge, I can relate to holding on the emotions,” Carrie said.

“I make the joke now that I grew up in a farm in a really small town, go travel for ‘American Idol,’ go all over the world, go on tours, make albums just so I could buy a farm, go back to the farm and live on a farm in a small town.”

Carrie does not mind going back to her roots. “We all have them,” she said. “You can’t get away from them. We have to go out and seal all those stuff before we realized I had that pretty good and I kind of want that back.

“I love my life now. I have the best of both worlds. I get my days on the farm. I get my chickens and my sheep. There are still a lot to do. It’s still a lot of work, but it’s very fulfilling. I came into the world that way, I will go out that way. I got to do those really cool things in an around and in between.”

AUTHOR PROFILE

Leah C. Salterio