American Idol Winner Abi Carter on Advice from Luke Bryan, Being a Part of Katy Perry's Last Season
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00:00 Hey, Us Weekly, I'm Abby Carter, and I just won American Idol.
00:03 Oh, disbelief.
00:04 For sure. Disbelief. I remember when it got down to it, and he was like, "And the winner
00:10 of American Idol, season 22." I was like, "Will Mosley, Will Mosley, Will Mosley." Like,
00:15 it was just ringing in my head. There was no possible outcome in this. There was no scenario
00:20 that I thought wherein it would be my name called at the end. I mean, the cool thing about Jon
00:24 Bon Jovi, I think, is that whether you're on camera or off camera, he is always as kind as he is. And
00:31 he... goodness. He's just... he would ask you questions about you that were very relevant
00:39 just from the get-go. And it didn't matter to him whether it was being filmed or not. He was so
00:44 humble, so kind. Bishop Briggs is just amazing. She became my best friend so fast. I freaking
00:56 just loved her. Honestly, everybody. Everybody has just been so kind. People just keep saying
01:03 to be myself and stay grounded throughout this whole process. And I think that that's great
01:07 advice. Because I've been wanting to do that. It is really hard. It's really hard to kind of be in
01:13 this whirlwind of things and have new things happen to you all the time. And people are always
01:17 touching up your hair and makeup. And you kind of just feel like a statue at some point. So normal.
01:22 But I'm excited to kind of continue on and remember who I am and continue just being me
01:30 and a person. And yeah. I just... goodness. I try really hard actually not to go through my DMs
01:37 because it's super overwhelming. I think... I mean, Bishop Briggs followed me yesterday,
01:45 which was really fun. Jordan Sparks followed me. Evanescence shouted me out. It was really crazy.
01:53 It's all been really, really crazy. But I still... I try to remove myself from the likes and follows
02:00 aspect of social media. And I just put out there what makes me happy and what I want to share.
02:06 I think I've been really excited to kind of move forward because, I mean,
02:10 the show is just so amazing. And it really just kind of throws you into the deep end of what
02:14 TV is like and what you might experience on the outside. But I'm really excited to experience
02:21 what's on the outside. And I hope that it's not a really harsh come down. I hope that from here,
02:27 I can just build on it. But I know that's really hard. It's a lot of work that you have to put into
02:34 it. But I hope from here, I can just release music and make an album, hopefully tour someday. I think
02:42 I want to do all of the things that an artist does. I think I want to continue to pursue that.
02:47 I have not had the luxury of doing that yet. I think that it's been just so go, go, go with these
02:54 really late releases and really early call times that you just kind of... You get home and you take
02:59 a shower and you take melatonin and you go to bed. I think that, yeah, I'll be... What's definitely
03:09 helpful for me is just calling my boyfriend or calling my mom. I do like to talk to people. I
03:16 think it helps me wind down. I like calling my friends and just hearing about their lives because
03:22 it makes me feel a little bit normal for a minute. No, he's just so wonderful. He's just the most
03:28 wonderful. I think I dedicated a lot to him in my heart. I mean, last night, even with Bed of Roses
03:35 and Somewhere, it was just in my head for him. And I was able to see him in the crowd and just
03:42 give that love to him. Oh, goodness. I mean, every time Katie cries, I cry.
03:47 I am a contagious crier for sure. Honestly, just so honored to even be in Katie's last season,
03:57 let alone... I can't even say win the show. It hasn't set in for me. Yeah. To win Katie's last
04:06 season is just insane. Yeah. What do you even say to that? She has been so wonderful throughout this
04:12 whole process. Honestly, all three of the judges have been so wonderful and they kind of pushed me
04:17 to step out of my box that I put myself in. They've pushed me to be better and greater and
04:26 bigger. And yeah, so to see them be emotional last night, it was like,
04:30 like, I think I hide under the other eight pearls, the other eight beautiful, talented
04:37 women on that stage. And I'm just like, I was lucky enough to just start the song and then
04:42 disappear for the rest of it and then come back in the very end. It was very nice.
04:49 I think Lady Gaga would crush that role. Katie, of course, as just she left such...
04:56 She's like a monument to the show. She's like, she left such a legacy. But I do feel like Lady
05:05 Gaga would be so cool. I think even Meghan Trainor would be really cool. I think she's just the
05:11 sweetest, who I will say. Yeah. With the mentoring and seeing her backstage. I remember the day that
05:17 she performed, she had a performance. She was feeling well, she had the flu. So she had a mask
05:22 on and her hair was blonde and blue. And I did not recognize her. And she was like, "Hey, queen."
05:29 And I was like, "Hey." And it dawned on me like five seconds later, I was like, "Oh my God,
05:34 Meghan Trainor." I can't even think about that moment without crying because, yeah, when I was
05:42 a preteen, I was listening to her very first release, Ocean Eyes. I consider myself really
05:50 early on that wave of people that started listening to her. Yeah, when her music video,
05:56 "Bellyache" came out, it was like me and my friends would sit in our computer room
06:00 and watch her music videos and fall in love with her. She was an inspiration to me, 100%. She has
06:10 inadvertently developed me as a singer, as a songwriter, as an artist. I think that
06:16 she has been a very big marker for me. And it was perfect timing. She released this song,
06:23 I auditioned for the show. And I think that even outside of Billie Eilish, this song just means so
06:31 much to so many people. And it was so easy to connect with because it said everything that
06:36 everybody was feeling but has never said. Not one person specifically, I think,
06:41 yeah, mostly my mom, honestly. My mom loves to live vicariously through me. And so she was like,
06:49 "Abby, you have to do it. You just have to." And for the longest time, I was very skeptical.
06:55 But I went in. My only goal was to make it past the audition. And I did that. And I was like,
07:02 "Great." And later I got upgraded to the platinum ticket. And I was like, "Holy crap."
07:07 And to just be here today was just insane. Luke Bryan said, he came up to me last night and he
07:16 was like, "I think this is the first time the person that we thought was going to be the winner
07:20 actually was." And I was like, "I can't believe that just in that first audition, they had that
07:29 idea of me." And just that amount of high hopes, I guess. I remember after my Bishop Briggs
07:38 performance, I went to the quick change room to get into the next outfit. And the boots that I've
07:44 been wearing on this show are like skin tight boots that don't have a zipper or anything.
07:50 And when LaDonna, part of the outfit team, why can't I think of the name?
07:58 Wardrobe? Wardrobe.
07:59 Wardrobe, yes. LaDonna, part of wardrobe, was trying to help me take these shoes off. And it
08:04 got to the point where I was laying on the ground, holding the hands of two of the other wardrobe
08:09 assistants. And she was just trying to yank it off of me. So I'll probably remember that for a
08:14 long time with just how the boot was stuck. And it took us forever to get those boots off.
08:20 Yes, absolutely. Super close. Super, super, super close. Julia, I'm a bridesmaid in her wedding.
08:26 I'm like, Jack, I just thought, I think the world of Jack. And so when it got to the top three and
08:35 people were being cut, it was really, it was again, I just thought he was going through and I
08:41 had so much love for him and wanted that to happen. I think in this whole experience, you want these
08:48 people to succeed and it doesn't really matter how far you go. You just, you love them so much
08:53 that you want them to go on.