Carrie Underwood Defends Crossovers
Carrie Underwood has no problems sharing the country format with pop stars. In fact, the country 'Idol' thinks it's smart for artists like Jessica Simpson, Darius Rucker and Jewel to crossover.
"Country music is very open-minded to a lot of people, and I think that's great. It's one of the reasons so many people love it -- even if they don't make country music, they can appreciate it," Underwood tells the Press & Sun Bulletin. "As far as artists go, it's such a good place to be, and people are so nice -- the fans are great. If I were on the outside looking in, I think I'd probably want to be a part of it, too."
Underwood says the secret to country success is all in the lyrics. The Grammy-winner insists that her own career accolades have come from striking a personal chord with her fans.
"The most important thing is to be honest," she says. "I have some goofy songs that don't have an ounce of truth in them -- they're just for fun. Like 'Before He Cheats' -- hopefully nobody's ever gone out and keyed anyone's car, but maybe they've wanted to at some point. I think all of us have been cheated on at some point or another -- it's just relating those feelings you had about whatever person was a jerk to you and knowing what it's like to be that angry at someone."
As far as Underwood doing her own crossing over to another genre, don't count on it. When The Boot asked her thoughts on 'Before He Cheats' being played on pop radio, she was quick to tell us that while she was flattered, that wasn't her intention.
"I sing country music. I love country music. It's what I've always wanted to do," she told us. "The crossover success we had was with a very country song ['Before He Cheats']. So I think that showed everybody that people love country music -- they just might not know it yet!"
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