By India McCarty
Did you know AMERICAN IDOL winner and country star Carrie Underwood almost quit the competition?
“I don’t know, sometimes I think it would just be easier if I go home,” the singer read from her 2005 diary in an episode of her IDOL TO ICON YouTube series. “But I know I would regret it forever. I just have to remember that I know I’ve got this. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t good. I can so do this. And who cares if the judges don’t like it? I know I do…lol.”
Underwood laughed at her younger self’s mindset, saying, “I love how I started out, like, ‘I don’t know, I just think it’d be easier if I go home,’ and then I just gradually start talking myself up. ‘I would regret it.’ ‘I got this.’ ‘I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t good!’ ‘I can so do this!’ It gets a little more and more ramped up.”
Despite the singer’s undeniable talent, Underwood said she didn’t even let herself think about winning until she made it to the Top 4.
“There were certain levels you really wanted to get to,” Underwood explained. “Once I got to Top 10, because I was a broadcast journalism major, I was like, ‘Okay, with every step, it’s going to be easier for me to get a job when I get sent home.’ I was very practical in my thinking. Top 10 was a little more of a relaxing stage to be in because it’s like, ‘No matter what happens, this is Top 10. We’re here. And nobody can take that away.’”
Carrie Underwood would go on to win the competition and become a country superstar, with hits like “Before He Cheats,” “All-American Girl” and “Jesus Take The Wheel.”
Speaking to GOOD MORNING AMERICA about her love of the genre, Underwood shared, “I always say that one of the things that I do love about singing country music is that we can cover so many different emotions and areas.”
Related: Carrie Underwood Gets Nostalgic and Dishes on Judging AMERICAN IDOL
“We can tell stories. We can sing about our faith. We can sing about our family. We can sing about drinking and cheating, ’cause that’s just, it’s life. We have fun, we’re serious, we’re faithful, we’re sassy — all of it,” she continued.
With all that fame comes some serious social media scrutiny, but Underwood recently shared how she steers clear of the haters.
“It’s really important when you think about social media that you realize it’s not the real world,” she told E! News. “It took me a long time to realize that, and a long time to be secure enough in myself to be like, ‘Do I care if somebody doesn’t like my hair today, or this thing I sang or how I sang it? I don’t.’”
Carrie Underwood has achieved so much since her time on AMERICAN IDOL. It’s hard to believe she ever thought about giving up and going home!
Read Next: Carrie Underwood Opens Up About How Her Faith Influences Her Music
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