She loves to rock.
Last night, the Season 23 of American Idol debuted with Carrie Underwood as a judge for her first season, and there’s a moment that’s going viral already from one of the auditions.
Fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan have already dubbed her “Jukebox Carrie” because she knows so many songs and lyrics from different genres, so you can imagine how surprised they were when she joined contestant Kobyn Melton, who goes by the stage name Insite, to song backup for his rendition of “Bodies.” After he first sang Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” for his audition song, he told the judges he wanted to really “blow the roof off” and Underwood joined him for Drowning Pool’s “Bodies.”
Of course, it was their debut single released in May 2001, and was included on their debut album Sinner, and Carrie was absolutely living her best life during this part of the show. As she walked back to her seat, she told everyone in the room:
“Woo! You got a good hype girl. That was high school for me…. I’ve even crowd surfed, people, okay.”
Lionel seemed surprised by the whole thing, responding to her:
“We are learning about our judge.”
Real country fans have known that Carrie’s a bit of a metal head… but it was Luke Bryan’s head banging that really got me:
@americanidol @Carrie Underwood rocks out on “Bodies” + @Insite’s epic headbanging! 🤘 #Headbanger #AmericanIdol ♬ original sound – AmericanIdol
Insite got a “yes” from all three judges despite their initial hesitation that his style would “fit” into the show, and while I haven’t watched Idol in years, it intrigues me to see an artist like this on the show because rock should be part of it all, too. There used to be a ton of rock artists on it, and it’s obviously a huge genre and one of my favorites so I’m biased, but I might have to tune in if this is what they’ve got going on there now.
Fans in the comments were mostly just shocked by Carrie and her music taste, though…
“Luke head banging kills me.”
“Carrie knowing the lyrics to this has me absolutely shook.”
“People don’t realize Carrie is a massive rock fan!”
“She’s always said she listened to metal during workouts.”
“Yes!! Bring rock music back to American idol!!”
“See this is the type of stuff that would bring me back to American Idol. I want to see stuff like this make it through. Dude is going to give Alice in Chains and Kurt Cobain vibes.”
“It’s Luke Bryan for me.”
“Can we please get a rock album from Carrie Underwood.”
“Honestly told my wife last night I have new respect for miss ‘Cry Pretty.’ She is a treasure and I needed this.”
“It’s about time you give a metal singer a try.”
“This was amazing.”
“This is absolutely amazing. congratulations. You deserve it!!!”
“The fact that the judges were just shocked as the rest of us.”
“Carrie singing backup for ‘Bodies’ wasn’t on my 2025 roster but here we are.”
“Lol just bc she’s in country genre doesn’t mean she never had this childhood. Haha I’m the same, I love a variety from the 90’s and early 2000’s. But when I write songs, all country baby lol.”
“Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan rocking out to to this song was nowhere near my 2025 bingo card.”
“Carrie’s a huge metal head outside of performing.”
“She sings Ozzy Osbourne songs and Motörhead songs in concert.”
“It shocked me how Carrie Underwood knew this song.”
“If he doesn’t win American Idol I’m never watching again lol.”
“SUPER impressed lmao loved it.”
“I was mind blown when she sang that and she killed it.”
“Carrie head banging has me floored.”
She may look like a perfect country queen, but she has even said before she’d consider putting out a rock album one day, and I actually think she would crush it… plus, she could play her own drums.
Don’t miss this season of American Idol which you can stream through Fubo TV.
That’s pretty rock and roll:
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