By now, Carrie Underwood can afford to drive whatever car she wants, but she still gets nostalgic for the early years of her career. Underwood, who won Season 4 of American Idol in 2005, was given a Ford Mustang convertible as part of her prize package, a vehicle she not only still has, but occasionally likes to drive as well.
“I do still have the car that I won when I won American Idol,” Underwood reveals on Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen. “So I have my blue Mustang. And every once in a while something will happen where I’ll have my car getting serviced or whatever, and I’ll get to drive that car. And it always makes me want to drive it more, because it was such a pivotal point in my life. That was the car that I was driving around when I first moved to Tennessee, and I’m very, very glad I still have that car.
“Like I said, every time I get in it, I’m always like, ‘Why don’t I just drive this more often?'” she adds. “Just because, it makes me feel good.”
Underwood might have kept the Mustang, but she did politely turn down one gift — the use of a private jet for a year — after winning Idol, when she found out how much it would cost her.
“Even when you’re on a show like that, it’s not like I had money all of a sudden, and a lot of times when someone gives you a gift of that magnitude you have to pay taxes on it,” Underwood told The Guardian. “I didn’t have the money to pay taxes on a jet, so I was like, ‘I’m good, thanks.’”
Underwood just released a new song, “Out Of That Truck,” which is likely from a new album. The 40-year-old wrote the song with Lydia Vaughn and David Garcia, inspired by thinking about what it is like to not be able to get over someone, due to physical reminders.
“We all have, if it’s a date place or your house, or something that reminds us of people,” Underwood explains. “Whether it is a former relationship or people that are in your life or currently in your life or whatever, it’s kind of like you just see fingerprints of people everywhere, if it’s a familiar space. And, so, we kind of wanted to explore that in the song.”
Underwood’s The Denim & Rhinestones Tour, which includes Jimmie Allen as her opening act, wraps up on March 17. She will resume her REFLECTION: The Las Vegas Residency in June. Find “Out Of That Truck” and all of Underwood’s music and upcoming shows at CarrieUnderwoodOfficial.com.
Photo Credit: Jeff Johnson