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Carrie Underwood On ‘Idol’ Audition: ‘It Was Nuts’

Carrie Underwood appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this week (3/5) and talked about her American Idol audition. Sitting on the couch next to her fellow judges Lionel…

Carrie Underwood poses in a white dress on a red carpet.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Carrie Underwood appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this week (3/5) and talked about her American Idol audition.

Sitting on the couch next to her fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, Fallon showed Carrie a photo of herself at her audition, which was twenty years ago. He said, "There you are 21. Do you remember what number you were?" Underwood said without hesitation, "14887." She then offered, "I still have that sticker somewhere. It's on the outside of a little photo book I made."

Fallon then asked what she remembered about that audition, and she said, "I mean, I was a baby. I was 21 years old in this photo, and a lot happened in the show. Like, it was crazy. I was a small-town girl, and I had to get on a plane by myself and fly out to LA, and it was nuts."

After Jimmy showed a video clip of the moment she won idol in 2005, Carrie gushed, "It was amazing."

Fallon captioned the post and clip on Instagram, writing, "@carrieunderwood still remembers her contestant number from when she auditioned for @americanidol 20 years ago! #FallonTonight."

See that post here.

Underwood recently shared an entry from her journal when she was competing as a contestant on America Idol twenty years ago. With just a week to go before she makes her debut as an American Idol judge, Carrie posted a video on Instagram reading an entry from her journal.

She says in a video clip, "Let's take a look at my journal from when I was on 'American Idol.'" She reads: "I just have to keep in mind that it will all be worth it, and the life that I have started will be great. Most importantly, I have to remember that this has all been my choice, and it's something I've wanted since I was a little girl."

She continues to read, "I know I have some great things ahead of me. Right now, I'm just trying to live in the moment and appreciate it all. I never dreamed that all of this would happen to me."

Underwood, herself, seems charmed by looking back on her own thoughts from that period. She exclaimed, "I love it!"

See that post here.

American Idol premieres on March 9 on ABC.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.