Luke Bryan Explains Why Carrie Underwood Is the “Bill Belichick” Of Country Music

Spilling the tea about his fellow judges.

The next season of American Idol will premiere on January 26th on ABC, marking the singing competition show’s ninth season on the that network and the 24th overall.

Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie will all return as judges for this season, and both Luke and Lionel have been judges since Idol started on ABC, but Carrie joined last season and has provided an interesting perspective considering she has become one of the biggest stars the show has ever produced after winning it all back in 2005.

She replaced Katy Perry as a judge in 2024, and from what I saw last year during the airing of the show, most fans were excited to have her back in this type of capacity, and it certainly made for a full-circle moment. Carrie was just 22 years old when she won Idol, and while I wondered how it would work for them having two country artists as judges at the same time, a first for the show, they all seem to have a great dynamic and there were several viral moments last year.

And ahead of the new season’s premiere, Luke shared some secrets about his fellow judges, and when speaking with Cody Alan on SiriusXM’s Cody’s Crash My Christmas Party on The Highway recently, he says that Carrie us the “most on-time person you have ever met.”

He joked that it was like Bill Belichick taught her how to be punctual, and I have to say, that’s definitely a good reputation to have:

“Well, you know, the thing about, you learn about, I know about Carrie Underwood, is like she is the most on-time person you have ever met. I’m talking about punctual, dialed in, professional. I’m talking about like one minute before like Bill Belichick taught her how to show up on time.

And so, I mean, I’m in my dressing room and I’m pretty good, but then I’m like, and you can look on the monitor and see who’s in the chair already. And it’s, let’s say it’s 9:03, and there’s Carrie, ready, looking at her nails… So, just her punctuality.”

Carrie’s a very busy lady with her career, in addition to being a mom to two boys, so I’m sure she runs a tight ship and it doesn’t surprise me at all that she’s so punctual.

Bryan added that he loves hearing about Carrie’s family, specifically all the funny stories she tells them about her boys:

“I’ll tell you, you know, this is our second year that we’ve started together and just getting to know her and her family dynamic. I mean, having two boys, it’s really fun to hear the stories going on around their household.”

In terms of Lionel Richie, apparently he’s a big fast food guy, and Luke says he can crush some In-N-Out:

“To look like Lionel Richie and to eat like Lionel Richie, I’m going to just eat like Lionel Richie. Like In-N-Out, he just crushes it.”

But as I’ve heard many other people say, Bryan confirms Richie’s sterling reputation, saying he ‘s the “best human being on the planet”:

“Lionel is…he’s just like the best. He’s the best human being on the planet.”

This season, they’re definitely bringing the Music City influence considering two of the three judges are country stars, and they did a lot of filming in Nashville this season, so I expect they’ll have at least a few country artists go deep into the competition, so it might be worth checking out this year.

The new season premieres on Monday, January 26th.

View this post on Instagram

The post Luke Bryan Explains Why Carrie Underwood Is the “Bill Belichick” Of Country Music first appeared on Whiskey Riff.