For a few fleeting moments in an Oklahoma grocery store parking lot, Carrie Underwood almost didn’t follow through with her American Idol audition. These brief seconds of doubt might’ve changed country music history forever if Underwood hadn’t decided to make her journey from small-town Oklahoma native to American Idol and, later, country music superstar.
All it took was one change of heart in the backseat of her parents’ car.
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Carrie Underwood Almost Didn’t Follow Through With Her Audition
Carrie Underwood might’ve had humble roots growing up on a cattle farm in Oklahoma, but she was always a star in her own right. Singing for her local congregation and family, her parents didn’t hesitate to drive the aspiring performer to an American Idol audition seven hours away in St. Louis, Missouri. Once there, Underwood got what every Idol auditioner hopes for: a golden ticket sending them straight to Hollywood.
Underwood recalled the fateful moment she and her parents were driving to the airport in a 2021 Guideposts essay. The college student had been experiencing terrible nerves each time she performed in front of the Idol judges, and as is often the case in stressful situations, a forgotten tube of lip liner ended up being the straw on the camel’s back. Underwood’s nerves got the best of her, and suddenly, she was second-guessing everything.
“When Mom and Dad were driving me to the airport to go to Hollywood, I realized I’d forgotten lipliner. We stopped at a grocery store, and Mom dashed inside to buy some. All at once, it was just too much,” Underwood wrote. “Going out to Los Angeles by myself, competing with all those other people who were so talented. I burst into tears.”
“My dad turned to me in the backseat,” she continued. “‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘we can go home right now, and we don’t ever have to talk about it again.’ I took a deep breath. ‘No,’ I said at last. ‘I’ll go.’”
The Lasting Legacy of Carrie Underwood’s Split-Second Decision
After Carrie Underwood’s mother returned to the car with lip liner, the family drove to the airport, and the rest is history. Underwood would go on to become the 2005 American Idol winner, and one year after that, her country music career skyrocketed. Her fame has only grown since then, leading to international tours, Las Vegas residencies, and a lasting legacy in country music that could have just as easily never happened.
“When I was a little girl, if you had asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would have told you I wanted to be a famous country music singer,” Underwood told a sold-out crowd at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena (via The Tennessean). “As I got older, dreams tend to give way to practicalities, so I started going to school to get a real job. One day, there was an open door, and I walked through it. My life was changed forever.”
“If there is something you guys out there are holding on to that just seems like too big of a dream or something too crazy, I’m living proof that the craziest things can happen, and you can end up exactly where you always wanted to be,” Underwood told her fans.
Music history is full of lightning-in-a-bottle, almost-missed-it moments, and Carrie Underwood almost not following through with her American Idol audition is certainly one of them. Luckily for us, for her, and the Season 23 Idol contestants who get to work with Underwood as she joins the judge’s panel, she didn’t let that brief moment of doubt at the grocery store get the best of her.
Photo by Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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