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"This Is My Time"
RD: You're one in a handful of musicians who have come out of American Idol and met with great success. What's the secret?Underwood: Nowadays, if you're a four out of ten vocally, but you're a ten out of ten physically, then you're in. That's what the music business is about, and I think that keeps a lot of great talent out. American Idol is all about normal, everyday people who have a great talent and are trying to do something with it.
RD: Why do you think the show is so popular?
Underwood: It's Cinderella stories all the way. People can say, "That girl or that guy is just like me."
RD: What did you learn from the experience?
Underwood: I learned that anything is possible, from me growing up wanting to be a country music singer to it actually happening. It's crazy.
RD: Tell us about your life before American Idol.
Underwood: I grew up on a farm, went to high school, graduated, went to college and was about to graduate, and then tried out for American Idol. The end.
RD: The beginning in a way.
Underwood: Yeah.
RD: What was your childhood like?
Underwood: I definitely was a tomboy. I climbed trees, and I'd jump hay bales and play with the cows, and Dad would take me fishing. I have two older sisters, and my parents -- my mom was a teacher, and my dad had a job in a paper mill -- worked hard to give us everything that we needed. We were raised in church. It was your typical all-American family.
RD: I've read that you're very close to your mom.
Underwood: My sisters are quite a bit older than me. They had each other; I had my mom. She was mainly the person I hung out with. It might sound a little dorky, but we'd go shopping and to the movies together and have mommy-daughter days all the time. She's just a good person, the kind of person everybody loves even when she annoys me like nobody's business.
RD: Are you in touch while you're on the road?
Underwood: We talk several times a day, sometimes not to my liking. Sometimes I'll look at my phone and laugh because it's my mom, and she's called for the seventh time that day. But I'd rather have her call 500 times than not at all.
RD: When did you first start singing for an audience?
Underwood: Once I hit about 10 years old, I started singing in the church choir. Then I entered a couple of talent shows, though I don't think I ever won a single one.
RD: So you had an inkling, or a dream, of one day being famous.
Underwood: If you asked me what I was going to do when I was younger, I definitely would've said, "I'm going to be famous. You're going to hear me on the radio." I knew that there was another world out there that I wanted. I didn't know how I'd get there.
RD: You'd never been on a plane until you flew to Hollywood for American Idol. Were you nervous?
Underwood: On the way to the airport, my mom stopped at the store. I started crying in the car with my dad, who's not exactly a sensitive guy. I said I don't want to fly, and he said, "Well, we can turn around right now and go back home if you want." I thought how something silly like not wanting to get on a plane might keep me from doing something cool, so I said, "I'll suck it up." Now I fly four times a week, and it's no big deal.
RD: What do you think about the big world, now that you've been away from Oklahoma?
Underwood: I know there's good people everywhere, but if you drive down the street in Oklahoma and you wave at somebody, they'll wave back. The town I grew up in was very small, and I could roam the streets and my parents didn't have to worry. In New York or L.A., it seems like everybody's so busy all the time. I really like going home because you can take a step back and say, "All right, this is my time." It's the best place to do nothing. It's just beautiful scenery and good people.
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