Carrie Underwood is eager to be part of her second season as a judge on American Idol. Underwood, who won Season 4 in 2005, is once again joining Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie to help find the best singer in the country.
“It’s only my second year being a judge,” Underwood tells Entertainment Tonight. “And I feel like last year we had a lot of big, powerful voices. This year, I feel like we have a lot of really unique voices.”
This year also marks a new change for Idol, with the former Hollywood Week now taking place in Nashville, closer to home for both Underwood and Bryan.
“I live an hour away so some nights I’ve kind of been staying downtown,” Underwood reveals. “But it is really nice. It’s such a great vibe.”
Bryan, who only lives 19 miles from the American Idol auditions, still sleeps in his bus sometimes, especially if they have busy days.
“It’s funny,” Bryan remarks. “We knew we had press today. I went and slept on my bus, I slept out there by the dumpsters in my tour bus.”
What Carrie Underwood Says About Being on ‘American Idol’
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For Underwood, returning to be one of the judges on American Idol is a way for her to express her gratitude for what the show did for her and her career.
“I owe my career to American Idol,” Underwood previously told 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.”
While on her first season as a judge on American Idol, Underwood reflected on her journey, from competing on the TV show to becoming a judge.
“I think about my journey on American Idol all the time, because it’s so grand,” Underwood says. “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.”
Photo Credit: Disney / Eric McCandless