Source: The Tennessean

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, executing a superstar itinerary: to Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music awards show, where she sang and won two ACMs; to Los Angeles to sing on the 2006 ”American Idol” finale in front of an estimated 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” herself one year and 11 days ago.

Since then, Underwood has sold more than 3 million albums on the power of a No. 1 single; she has won Billboard, Dove and ACM awards; and she scored a performance slot at the National Basketball Association All-Star Game halftime show and sang the national anthem before the National Football Conference championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers.

Underwood goes into this year’s CMA Music Festival, which starts Thursday, as country’s ”it” girl.

And she does so drawing a crowd virtually everywhere she goes . . . or even when she stays in. Underwood reports that several little girls occasionally ring the doorbell at her new Williamson County house.

”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. But you’ve got to keep that in mind all the time.”

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

Underwood started singing as a little girl in vacation Bible school at First Free Will Baptist Church in her town, which she describes as a ”real conservative, quiet church, where you’d listen a lot, sing a hymn and leave.”

Underwood’s only childhood conflict, as it were, would come from an occasional run-in with her mom at school when Mrs. Underwood was the substitute teacher for her class.

”I stuck my tongue out behind her back once,” Underwood said. ”I got told on.”

Music became fun for her when she met elementary and intermediate school teacher Cathy Cooper, who cast Underwood as Mother Nature singing to the animals in a fourth-grade production.

From there, Underwood began singing in talent contests locally and regionally, and she so impressed one woman at a show that the woman told her wealthy Arkansas boyfriend that he had to get Underwood to Music Row.

Underwood won’t reveal the man’s name or much about him, other than to say he had no music industry experience. But Underwood, at age 15, found herself with an artist development deal at Capitol Records, then home to Garth Brooks.

The deal quickly went away when there was a change at the helm of Capitol, and Underwood went back to Oklahoma with her tail between her legs.

”Dream shattered,” she said, then turned more pensive. ”I wasn’t ready anyway.”

Underwood did indeed shelve her singer dreams, instead enrolling at nearby Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., where she studied broadcast journalism and became part of a country music review show.

In fall 2004, her friends encouraged her to go to the ”American Idol” auditions, and her mom drove her and a friend to St. Louis.

Underwood’s adorable girl-next-door looks and kind disposition made her a natural for country music, but she stumbled a bit at first. Her first single, ”Inside Your Heaven,” released immediately after her May 25, 2005, win, reached No. 1 on the all-genre 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,” No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for six straight weeks and R&R’s country airplay chart for five straight weeks. Underwood set a record for most weeks at No. 1 for a single from a new artist’s debut album since those records were first kept in 1990.

Underwood kept up her firsts when, in November, she made CMA awards show history by becoming the first artist with only one country single out to get a performance slot.

Underwood went on to win several more awards, and she also went on to get involved in her first mini-controversy, at the CMT music awards in April.

In the press room, Wynonna was asked her opinion of Underwood, and she said she thought Underwood was solid but went on to say lots of country singing these days is vanilla. Underwood was nearby behind a curtain and her eyes welled with tears, and they did again when Wynonna later, with Underwood next to her, apologized in front of reporters.

The next night, Underwood’s publicist, Jessie Schmidt, told reporters at Underwood’s triple-platinum (3 million albums sold) party that the Wynonna comments stung.

”It hurt her feelings,” Schmidt said. ”Had she been in a room by herself, she probably would’ve cried.”

It wasn’t the last time Underwood would show an emotional side.

During last month’s ACM awards show, she performed ”Jesus” and her voice cracked afterward as she thanked the crowd for its rowdy response. Underwood then wiped away a tear.

Backstage, reporters asked Underwood about her reaction.

”I’m a big baby. That happens quite a bit,” she said. ”I just realized where I was and it made me a little teary-eyed.”

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 on the ACM orange carpet and backstage.

But Underwood says she doesn’t mind because ”Idol” is what brought her to a national stage. She said she feels it may have been her only way back to Nashville, because she feels the people representing her when she was 15 may have burned bridges on Music Row.

Sometimes, though, the ”Idol” 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 (fifth season Southern ‘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.”

Underwood laughs it off.

”If they think I’m Kellie, and they’re happy about it, that’s fine, I guess.”

Then there are the more fun parts of fame.

Underwood spent the better part of a day in Las Vegas last month trying on clothes for her back-to-back nights on the ACM awards show and the ”Idol” finale. She needed four outfits for the ACMs (orange carpet, performance, one to wear in the seats and one for the after-show party) and five for the ”Idol” appearance the next night (red carpet, three appearances and after-show party).

”We had about 50 dresses to try on. My room was a mess!” she said.

With the upcoming Kenny Chesney tour dates, CMA Music Festival and other TV and concert appearances, Underwood says she won’t put any serious thought into her next album until October.

Then she’ll try to further develop her songwriting.