Country singer Carrie Underwood has some things to say to singers that don’t sing live, and it’s not positive.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the “Before He Cheats” singer didn’t mince words about her feelings for subpar singers. She said it bothers her when singers don’t sound like their album.
“I love to sing, and I’ve always taken pride in the work I’ve put in on my vocals. I do want to sound good. Growing up and going to concerts or seeing my favorite artists on TV, if they didn’t sound like they were supposed to sound, it was always so deflating.”
So what would happen when she saw someone in concert and they were under par? Well, at least under the par of Underwood’s expectations?
“I’d lose respect for them. Or when I’d go to a concert and hear them drop keys, I was like, ‘You can’t hit the notes! Why’d you record them if you can’t sing them?’ That stuff is important to me.”
Underwood also revealed in the interview that she would pick really hard vocalists to mimic when she was learning how to sing. One of those singers was the great Axl Rose, lead singer of legendary rock band Guns N’ Roses.
“The way I learned how to sing was I would pick really hard vocalists to try to emulate, and his voice always mesmerized me. I was like, ‘How is he doing the things that he’s doing?'”
She eventually reached out to Axl Rose personally and told him she was a huge fan and that she’d love to perform with him. On April 30, the two shared the stage for a duo performance of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City.”
“It was many years in the making. I’ve been covering Guns N’ Roses my whole life, pretty much, and definitely onstage for the past 15 years at least. I had asked before if he would ever come sing, or if I could come to him somewhere. We had a couple almost maybes, where it almost maybe would have happened but for various reasons it wasn’t the right time. But [for Stagecoach] I asked. I sent him an email and said, ‘We’re so close to you,’ and explained the why and what he meant to me.”
Underwood’s latest album is called Denim & Rhinestones, and the lead single is called “Ghost Story.” Check it out below.
