American idol sings her way across country

Less than two years ago, Carrie Underwood, a young, shy Oklahoma blonde, took her first-ever flight – a trip to Hollywood to audition for “American Idol.”

Just last month, Underwood flew three times in seven days: to Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music awards show, where she sang and won two trophies; to Los Angeles to sing on this year’s “Idol” finale in front of a TV audience of 40 million; and to Nashville to get ready for her opening slot on Kenny Chesney’s stadium tour.

Underwood, scared to get on that first flight in 2004, now sounds like a world-weary traveler.

“We flew to Vegas from New York and the flight was really delayed,” she says, sarcasm creeping into her voice, “and that was awesome, because I don’t need my sleep or anything.”

Underwood may be a bit agitated with the travel, but she couldn’t be more upbeat about her life since winning “Idol” a year ago.

Since then, she has sold more than 3 million albums on the power of a No. 1 single and also won Billboard and Dove awards.

Now that she’s country’s “it” girl, she draws a crowd virtually everywhere she goes – even when she stays in. Underwood reports that several little girls occasionally ring the doorbell at her home.

“It’s all great,” she says, smiling. “I’d much rather people be excited and pay attention and stuff like that than not know who I am or what I do. So it’s all good.”

Underwood, 23, says it’s still hard to get used to so much attention because she had such a humble, quiet life before “Idol.”

She’s the third daughter of a paper mill worker and an elementary school teacher in rural Checotah, Okla., just next to the town Merle Haggard made famous in “Okie From Muskogee.”

Underwood started singing as a little girl in vacation Bible school in what she describes as a “real conservative, quiet church, where you’d listen a lot, sing a hymn and leave.”

Music became fun for her when she was cast as Mother Nature singing to the animals in a fourth-grade production. From there, Underwood began singing in talent contests locally and regionally, and at age 15, found herself with an artist development deal at Capitol Records, then home to Garth Brooks.

But that agreement quickly evaporated when there was a change at the helm of Capitol, and Underwood went back to Oklahoma heartbroken.

“Dream shattered,” she says, then turns more pensive: “I wasn’t ready anyway.”

Underwood shelved her musical ambitions, instead enrolling at nearby Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., where she studied broadcast journalism and became part of a country music revue show. Then, in fall 2004, her friends encouraged her to go to the “American Idol” auditions, and the rest is history.

Her adorable girl-next-door looks and kind disposition have made Underwood a natural for country music, but she stumbled a bit at first. Her first single, “Inside Your Heaven,” released immediately after her “Idol” win last May, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart but got little country radio play.

Just a few months later, though, Underwood exploded at country radio with “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which was No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for six straight weeks.

In November, she made Country Music Association awards show history by becoming the first artist with only one single out to get a performance slot.

Her first mini-controversy came at the Country Music Television awards in April. In the press room, when asked her opinion, Wynonna Judd said she thought Underwood was solid but went on to say that lots of country singing these days is vanilla.

Underwood was nearby behind a curtain and her eyes welled with tears; they did again when Wynonna later, with Underwood next to her, apologized in front of reporters.

Despite her success so far as a country artist, many fans and reporters still tie her closely to “American Idol,” and she got dozens of “Idol” questions at the ACM awards.

Underwood says she doesn’t mind because “Idol” is what brought her to a national stage. Sometimes, though, the connection can be a bit much – as it was when she was having lunch with her manager on Mother’s Day.

“We were in some kind of deli and this woman comes up to me and says, ‘My son and I were having a debate.’ I figured right then she knew who I was and she was going to ask me for an autograph, so I had this big stupid grin on my face,” Underwood said.

“And then she said, ‘Are you (this-season “Idol” contestant) Kellie Pickler?’ And I said, ‘What? Noooooo.’ She was like, ‘You’re not?’ and she really wouldn’t believe me at all.

“And I said, ‘Ma’am, it’s Mother’s Day and I promise to you on my mother that I’m not Kellie Pickler.’ And I still don’t think she believed me. That was a first.”