10 Things You Didn’t Know About Lauren Alaina: No. 1

1. She sang at Tootsie's the day of her American Idol audition.

After taking any chance she could to perform in her hometown and entering the occasional competition elsewhere, Alaina starting making trips to Nashville when she was 12 years old. "I would go into the bars on Broadway before 6PM and walk up to the people on the stage and ask if I could sing, and they would let me. Half the time people weren’t listening to me, but I thought I was cool," she remembers.

The day she auditioned for American Idol at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, she later performed at the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Lower Broadway, which is kitty-corner to the arena. "I sang with the band and they said, ‘You need to run across the street and audition for American Idol.' I had already auditioned and made it to the next round, but I couldn’t tell anybody. I bought a pair of cowboy boots to celebrate.”