Carrie Underwood almost didn't make the trip to Los Angeles to compete on American Idol in 2005.

The seven-time Grammy winner, who ended up winning the singing competition reflected on her rise to fame in a piece she wrote for Guideposts magazine this month.

"The summer before my senior year, I was home one day, watching TV… and saw a news segment about people auditioning for the show American Idol," Underwood shared. "I checked online. The closest auditions were being held in St. Louis."

Underwood thought a six-hour drive to St. Louis was "too far" from her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma, so she decided she would pass on auditioning. However, the singer decided to give it a shot when her mom offered to take her.

"It would be easy to say the rest is history, that it was meant to be. But it didn’t feel like that at the time. Going through a slew of auditions in St. Louis, getting the 'golden ticket' to Hollywood, every contestant’s dream, I was terrified," she explained. "Every time I had to sing in front of the judges, I’d get nervous the way I did in church that first time. Then I’d say a prayer and leave it in God’s hands."

When the time finally arrived for her to leave her hometown of Los Angeles, she broke down into tears.

“All at once, it was just too much. Going out to Los Angeles by myself, competing with all those other people who were so talented. I burst into tears,” she said. “My dad turned to me in the backseat. ‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘we can go home right now, and we don’t ever have to talk about it again.’”

The "Drinking Alone" singer continued on to write that "growing up on a farm with loving parents and our church family defined my values." She added that while she might be a star now, she and her husband, Mike Fisher, "do all we can to raise our two boys [Isaiah, 5, and Jacob, 22 months] with values like the ones I grew up with in Checotah. Down-to-earth, church on Sundays, plenty of grass and trees and space outside for them to roam. At night, when we put the boys to bed, we pray out loud with them. Just talking to God, letting them know he hears their every word."

Photo: Getty Images

Amanda McGraw

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