Skip to main content

Carrie Underwood is a country music superstar who has met and worked with several other big names in the industry. She recently revealed that she looks back fondly on her first encounter with one legend even though it started when they slapped her backside.

Here’s who the “Before He Cheats” artist said smacked her bottom backstage at the Grand Ole Opry.

Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood | Rich Fury/Getty Images

Underwood shot to fame after wining Season 4 of ‘American Idol’

Underwood is one of the most recognizable faces in music today, but it wasn’t that long ago when we saw her for the first time during her American Idol audition.

Underwood performed Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” in front then-judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson.

While waiting to hear if she was moving on, Underwood’s mother said: “I just think she’s beautiful, and I think she’s got the voice, so I hope she’s going on. But I don’t know. I have faith in her.”

Underwood did impress the judges and went to Hollywood where she beat out the competition and was crowned the season 4 champ on May 25, 2005. Since then, she’s been dominating the charts with hit after hit, cementing herself as one of country music’s biggest stars.

Underwood shared her favorite memory of being at the Opry

In October, Underwood shared with People some of her best memories at the Grand Ole Opry.

Of her debut, the songbird said, “It was such whirlwind because it was right after I was on American Idol. I was backstage, and there were so many people I was meeting and taking pictures with. I just felt like everyone was excited I was there, which was great because I was excited that I was there!”

Underwood said this star ‘smacked my rear’ backstage

Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn | Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Americana Music
Related

‘American Idol’: Carrie Underwood Was Considered a Dud at First by Backstage Crew

Underwood also revealed that she met a legend backstage who slapped her behind.

“I was talking to Vince Gill (just name-dropping here), and somebody walked by me and smacked my rear,” she recalled. “It definitely caught me off guard for a second, and then I turned around, and that was my first time meeting Ms. Loretta Lynn!”

She added that her favorite surprise at the Opry was, “Definitely the night I was asked to become an Opry member by Randy Travis. He walked out on stage right after I was done singing his song ‘I Told You So.'”

Another country music legend included Underwood in one of her fondest memories at the Opry.

Reba McEntire reflected on the 40th anniversary of her Opry debut and remembered that she was “thrilled to pieces because Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill were there to sing with me” and “when Dolly [Parton] came out that was just the icing on the cake!”

Best in Entertainment