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Spreading All-Star Holiday Cheer with Carrie Underwood
by Troy Rogers
After capturing the hearts of fans as the winner
of American Idol and soaring to super country
stardom, singer Carrie Underwood quickly became
one of new country's young elite with a whopping
ten number one singles between her first two albums.
A four time Grammy winner, Carrie Underwood has
earned her place as one of country music's finest
and now takes her talents to the Fox TV stage
to headline her own two-hour Christmas variety
show, Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special,
which airs Monday, December 7 at 8pm on Fox.
Produced by Nigel Lythgoe of So You Think You Can Dance?, Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special welcomes such stars as Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley , David Cook, Kristin Chenoweth, Christina Applegate, and more to perform for the holidays with Carrie, as Underwood also takes to the All-Star Holiday Special stage to sing new songs from her upcoming album.
Ahead of the December 7 Fox broadcast of Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special, we hopped on the line for a conference call with country superstar, Carrie Underwood, to learn more about her Christmas past, working with country legend Dolly Parton, her favorite Christmas songs, her plans for the holidays, and whether Carrie Underwood still watches American Idol.
Did you watch musical
variety shows like this as a kid?
 CARRIE
UNDERWOOD: Well, I think I kind of just
missed some of the variety stuff. I’ve seen
the Mandrell sisters before, but it wasn’t something
that we all gathered around to watch. I kind
of missed that era and I’m glad to see that
there’s other people doing their stuff, too,
and I think it’s really great family programming.
It was a lot of fun to tape and I think we ended
up with a great show. And I’m glad to see that
that format may be catching on again.
Have you thought about
recording a Christmas album?
UNDERWOOD: I was lucky enough to record a few songs last year. I was so busy last year, I didn’t actually have time to do a full album, but I would love to. I love classic Christmas songs. They have been around forever and everybody knows them and I like doing things very traditional as far as Christmas songs go. ... I just think there’s so many things that are just perfect the way they are. When you get some good, classics, of course, you can put a little bit of yourself in there. If we all sang the same song the exact same way, that would be really boring and nobody would want to hear anybody else sing it. But I love to keep things as traditional as possible and I love strings and I love to just keep them traditional and very classy.
What was it like working
with Dolly Parton on this special?
 UNDERWOOD:
She was very nice, nice enough to come and be
a part of the show. I got to sing with her and
she did some stuff on her own, too. I’d never
met Dolly before this, so I was so excited to
be able to get to talk to her and obviously
get to sing with her. It felt like such a special
moment for me in the show to be able to perform
with her. It was a dream come true ... When
Dolly’s there, you just step out of the spotlight;
let her do her thing because no matter how hard
you try, she’s going to steal the spotlight.
It’s great. It’s the way it should be.
Do you perform with David
Cook and Brad Paisley on the show?
UNDERWOOD: [David and I] sing together, which the first time we sang together was last year - was it last year? it seems like a long time ago - at the opening in Disney World of the American Idol attraction. They asked us to sing together and we did and it was like, hey, this is really good. This feels really good. So we kind of rocked out for a minute and got to sing together again and I think, again, it’s probably one of my favorites on the show, because I just love him to death.
[Brad] is on the special. We get to do a song together, and he performs one of his own. We had to do it in a different way, though, because he couldn’t actually be in L.A. for the taping, so we did something kind of cool to bring two locations together.
Can you talk about the
skits with Kristin Chenoweth and Christina Applegate
in the special?
 UNDERWOOD:
Well, they were great. I think it’s a lot easier
to do [funny] stuff like that when you have
two people around you that actually know what
they’re doing. And they both have great comedic
timing. Like I said, they know what they’re
doing. So we ended up doing a medley of sorts
of throwback songs, like the ’50s, ’60s vibe
with matching pink dcarrie-kristin-2resses and
beehives. It was just a lot of fun being around
them and they’re great. They showed up and they
were willing to do whatever we needed them to
do. Three blondes, we had fun together.
What songs are you going
to sing on the special?
UNDERWOOD: I hate to give away too much information, but another one of my favorite moments, of course, is singing with Dolly. We kind of did one of her classics that many should recognize, but it was an amazing moment in the show and she was so great. I thought we sounded really good together. Like I said, it was a dream come true for me.
Do you have a favorite
Christmas song?
 UNDERWOOD:
Oh, man, I love things like O Holy Night. I
think that’s probably my favorite, but Little
Drummer Boy, and things like that [too]. I have
those on my records. They’re just the things
that really put you in a Christmas frame of
mind.
What were your holidays
like as a child?
UNDERWOOD: Growing up ... basically we don’t really have too many traditions as a family. But we would always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Of course, Santa would come on Christmas morning. But we had records and it wasn’t even any specific name, artist. It was just like a choir or something. We had these old records that I would always play for Christmas. I have them now. Thank God, my mom didn’t throw them away. I have them now and I still like to play them. It makes me think about Christmas.
What was the best Christmas
present you’ve received?
UNDERWOOD: Oh, I don’t know. I remember when I was little, I wanted a TV so bad. Theres wasn’t a box underneath the tree big enough to have a TV in it. So I was kind of getting disappointed, the closer it got to Christmas because there was never another box that was under there that was big enough. And my mom had wrapped up the remote and it was like whatever, the smallest TV you could possibly get, it was my TV. I think I had that sucker until I was like - they might even still have it at the house, to be honest - probably 15, 20 years old, but that was really awesome to like a 7-year-old girl.
What are your holiday
plans this year?
 UNDERWOOD:
I’ll just be with my family. We don’t really
have that many traditions, but we are together
and that’s the most important thing. We eat
ourselves silly and try, of course, to remember
the true meaning of Christmas and celebrate
the birth of Jesus.
When you "eat yourself
silly" over the holidays, do you have a favorite
holiday food?
Goodness, my mom always makes like a broccoli cheese casserole and we do like potato casseroles and stuff like that. Just whatever is meat-free I can load on my plate, I’m there. I am not a picky eater. I just love food.
Do you still watch American Idol?
UNDERWOOD: I will always have just the biggest love for American Idol as a participant and as a fan. Now it’s so crazy for me to watch and think, "Oh my gosh, I was on that show." But I love the people on that. I love the people working on it. I love to go back and talk to the contestants and I vote, too, just like everybody else. I sit out there and I vote, so it’s great to understand being a fan and being a participant. I get to see both sides.
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