Carrie Underwood rewatches her ‘American Idol’ audition 20 years later: 'I did a bad job'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Carrie Underwood recently rewatched her 'American Idol' audition in a video produced by the show, nearly 20 years after she first tried out.
Now 41, she reflected on the moment as she prepares to be a guest judge on the show's season 23.
Carrie Underwood felt uneasy when Simon Cowell cut her off
The video, posted on Wednesday, March 5, shows Carrie Underwood on her family farm in Checotah, Oklahoma, before heading to St Louis with her mother for the audition that would change her life.
Before her audition, an executive producer warned Underwood that Simon Cowell disliked country music, but she already knew.
She decided to sing Bonnie Raitt’s 'I Can’t Make You Love Me,' hoping it would still represent her style.
Then 21, Underwood felt uneasy when Cowell, now 65, cut her off before she finished the chorus.
"I was like why did they cut me off? They cut me off," Underwood recalled.
She initially thought she had done poorly. "I was like, ‘Ah, I did a bad job. He stopped me singing’," she remembered.
However, Cowell reassured her that she had done a great job and encouraged her to continue on her path, even though he was not a fan of country music.
Carrie Underwood recalls holding in 'all my emotions' during audition
Looking back at her performance, Carrie Underwood noted how stiff she appeared.
"I would not move my hands for anything," she said, as per Us Weekly. "I think I was just trying to hold in all my emotions. Literally. Like, hold them into my body," she recalled.
She admitted that Cowell’s opinion affected her song choice.
"It did affect my song choice in my audition," Underwood said, adding "I thought maybe if I sang ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me,’ it would kind of still be me and a song that I knew and loved."
Despite her nerves, all three judges—Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson—approved her to advance to the next round.
Carrie Underwood reads her 'great' journey from journal she kept at the time
At the end of the video, Carrie Underwood read from a journal she kept at the time.
"I just have to keep in mind that it’ll all be worth it and that the life I’ve started will be great," she read.
"Most importantly, I have to remember this has all been my choice and it’s something I’ve wanted ever since I was a little girl."
She added, "I know I have some great things ahead of me. Right now I’m just trying to live in the moment and appreciate it all. I never dreamed that all of this would happen to me. I love it."
Carrie Underwood's 'exciting' return to 'American Idol'
Speaking with E! News on March 6, Carrie Underwood shared her excitement about returning to 'American Idol.'
"I have been thinking a lot back on my own journey and reminiscing quite a bit. And it's very exciting to me to think that I'm gonna be a part of somebody else's journey in that way," she said.
When asked what her husband and sons thought about her new role, she said, "My son this morning, he thinks I'm singing somewhere. So he's like, God, please give her all the right words and help her sing great."
She added, "And Mike was like, not singing. Like they don't know what, they don't really know what I do. They do but they don't. Which I kind of love. I'm a mom to them."
