Before she was Jason Aldean‘s better half and stepping in to defend the country singer over the “Try That In A Small Town” backlash, Brittany Aldean was trying to make it out on her own on the singing competition American Idol.
At the time, Brittany Kerr was 24 years of age and working as an NBA Dancer for the Charlotte Bobcats (now called the Hornets, and well, previously called the Hornets). She was making a decent living, but decided that she wanted to give a singing career a try, and what better way to kickstart a career (at least between the years 2002 and 2015) than auditioning for American Idol?
During Season 11 of the show, Brittany walked into the audition room to face the judges of Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, and Randy Jackson. The North Carolina native’s natural beauty quickly won over Tyler, who screamed out “I say yes” before she even sang a note.
By the time Brittany told the judges that she was going to sing “Spoiled” by Joss Stone, she had already won over Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson. Of the three judges, Jennifer Lopez was the only one that still needed to hear her sing before she could give an answer.
Brittany gets through the first verse, and is then told by the panel that she can stop right there. Though you might think that only singing for that short amount of time would be a bad thing, it actually worked out for Aldean.
Jackson and Tyler both approved of the voice, with the Aerosmith lead man only telling Brittany that she should project more with her vocals, telling her:
“I think that’s good. I like it. I liked your melody. You’re on pitch and you’re good lookin. You just gotta push it out a little bit more.
Listen to some old blues and listen to the words and when it comes time to sing it, project like that.”
There’s a funny moment where Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler are arguing about telling Brittany to “push it out,” leaving viewers left to wonder if there’s some sort of double meaning to Tyler’s advice. Based on how smitten Steven Tyler was with Brittany from the moment she walked in the door, it might be safe to assume that there was.
When it came time to vote to see if Aldean (then Kerr) would move on, Randy Jackson said yes, Jennifer Lopez said no, and Tyler swooped in to save the day by saying yes and sending her on to Hollywood.
Lopez was clearly a little upset at the guys for sending her through, saying:
“I thought she had a pretty voice, it just wasn’t strong enough. She’s not going to survive a week.”
And J-Lo was right.
Brittany did get to travel to Hollywood to continue in the competition, but she was knocked out before the contestants even got to perform in front of a live audience. So her dreams of being an American Idol winner were over just like that, but it might have worked out for the best.
Jason Aldean and Brittany Kerr met later in 2012, started dating in 2014, and tied the knot in 2015. Though the couple got off to somewhat of a rough start with the tabloids (Jason was married to another woman when they met), they stayed strong and have been happily married for eight years. In the end, it all worked out, and who knows if Aldean himself saw this audition clip and knew that Brittany was the one.
Take a look:
