Carrie Underwood was just announced as a judge on the upcoming Season 23 of American Idol, joining veteran judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, and taking the place of Katy Perry, who left after last season. While Bryan wasn’t part of the final decision to invite Underwood to be part of American Idol, he does say that both he and Richie are fully in favor of having Underwood join them next season.
“As far as decisions, no, I didn’t get any vote, but that doesn’t mean we’re not super excited to have Carrie,” Bryan shared with Everything Nash and other outlets, at a recent media event. “They asked opinions and stuff, and everybody they were bringing up, I was like, ‘That would be great. That would be great. What about us? Are y’all hiring us?'” ‘Cause we didn’t know for a little bit.
“That’s a joke,” he added with a laugh. “So we’re excited to have Carrie. I think me and her, and our love for country music, and the brand of country music, will really line up. Obviously, I’m more [wild], and Carrie’s more very graceful and elegant, so we’ll see how she handles me. Katy was worse than me. Katy was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s going there.'”
Bryan and Underwood know each other well, after spending the last several years as two of country music’s biggest stars. Still, the father of two is looking forward to getting to know Underwood even better, once Season 23 begins.
“I think at the end of it though, I think when you work that much with other people, you develop a really cool respect for everybody’s taste, talents, intuition,” Bryan said. “So I’m really excited to know a little bit more about how she’s going to judge and do all that. She’s certainly got all the qualifications to do a great job. And she’s certainly, you look back at her hosting days on the CMAs, she knocked it out of the park.”
Underwood won Season 4 of American Idol in 2005. The 41-year-old is eager to return to Idol, this time in a much different role than when she was an aspiring singer.
“it feels like home,” Underwood tells Good Morning America. “There are so many people that even still work on the show that were there when I was a contestant. And I feel like being on both sides of the coin, I’ll be able to hopefully offer some insight and help and kind of offer a different viewpoint.”
Bryan has a lot on his mind besides returning to American Idol. The 48-year-old will release his eighth studio album, Mind Of A Country Boy, out on September 27.
“I think this album, as I’ve tried to do with all my albums, just has a little bit of everything,” Bryan said. “I do some things different vocally on this one that I’ve not done before. It’s about each song having its place and having its meaning. It’s trying not to be overly redundant with songs. I think that’s why I’ve been blessed to have a long career and what I feel like this album’s going to do.”
A premiere date for Season 23 of American Idol has yet to be announced. Pre-order Mind Of A Country Boy, and find all of Bryan’s music and upcoming shows at LukeBryan.com.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Schmidt Relations and Randee St. Nicholas