Carrie Underwood is getting emotional looking back at her time on American Idol. The 42-year-old reflected on the show, and how much it transformed her life, as her first season as a judge recently came to an end.
“I think about my journey on American Idol all the time, because it’s so grand. It’s so unbelievable. If somebody were to explain to me, if I had never seen American Idol before, and then somebody were to explain to me my journey, in their words, I would be like, ‘That’s impossible. What are you even saying?’ To go from somebody who was going to school, trying to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, and just kind of on a whim to go try out for American Idol.
“And then to make it past the first round, make it past the second round,” she continues. “To keep going, and then end up the last person standing, and then everything that’s happened since then, it just sounds insane. And it sounds insane to me when I think about it, because if I hadn’t made that one decision in my life, my life would be completely different. So it’s a blessed journey that I’ve been on.”
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Underwood has been vocal about her gratitude for American Idol, and the career she has as a result.
“I owe my career to American Idol,” Underwood tells People. “It has been such an important part of my life, and I will always be grateful for that. Coming back as a judge 20 years later is such a special full-circle moment for me, and it’s meant a lot to share that journey with the people that have been there from the beginning, as well as a whole new generation of Idol fans.”
Underwood knows that winning Season 4 of American Idol changed everything for her.
“It is really incredible to think, a few decisions that we make in life can completely alter our trajectory,” says the singer. “I make the joke now that I grew up on a farm, in a really small town. Go try out for American Idol, go all over the world. Go on tours, make albums, do all this stuff, just so I could buy a farm, and go back to the farm and live on a farm in a small little town That’s roots. We all have them. You can’t get away from them, and sometimes you have to go out and see all the other stuff before you realize, ‘Man, I had it pretty good, and I kind of want that back.’”
“I love my life so much now, and I feel like I get the best of both worlds,” she continues. “I get my days on the farm at home. I get my chickens and my sheep. There’s still a lot to do. It’s a lot of work. It’s very fulfilling, and that’s where I came from. I came in the world that way, and I’m gonna go out that way. I got to go do some really cool things in and around it and in-between.”