‘American Idol': Colby Swift Fills Luke Bryan’s Shoes — Literally!
Just a week ago, American Idol fans were treated to Texan Colby Swift's audition, which had the personality-filled 19-year-old charming judge Luke Bryan—like, really charming him. After his performance, Bryan noted, "Well, I don't know if a kid has ever walked in here and been more me at 19."
Swift moved on, naturally, and during the initial night Hollywood Week (Mar. 24), he managed to even further charm Bryan, as well as the other judges. When asked if he'd ever been to Hollywood, he shrugged, "I've barely been out of the state of Texas, man." When asked if he was a "real-life cowboy," he calmly replied, "Yeah, I guess you could say that...I ain't never taken a day of voice lessons in my life. I can't sing a song like everybody else. I'm me, I'm Colby Swift, and I ain't trying to be nobody else."
Being himself seemed to suit the proceedings just fine. "Today I'm gonna be singing Freddy Fender, 'Every Teardrop Falls,'" he noted, adding that he was doing the song by request of his little sister. "We were in my truck, I was picking her up from school. She goes, 'Colby, you got to sing that Fender song I like,' and I said, 'Okay, I'll sing it.'"
Sing it he did, to which Bryan stopped him and asked, "Can you sing this without the guitar? The Spanish part?" Swift amicably and smoothly sang the Spanish part without accompaniment, causing judge Katy Perry (a native Californian who knows as well as a Texan from the Spanish language) to hoot in approval. When all three judges gave him a standing ovation, he got teared up.
There's just one problem afoot: Both of Swift's pairs of boots have holes in the bottom. Bryan sagely asked him, "Colby, can you show the camera the bottom of your shoes there?" When he did, Bryan then said, "What size shoe are you, Colby? Wouldn't be a 12d, would it? Well, I'm a 12d. I'll solve that little problem." He handed over his own boots, which Swift confusedly appropriated as the audience chanted "Put them on! Put them on!"
"Those boots are made for walking to the next round," smiled Bryan. Unfortunately, he got eliminated in the group rounds (as did several other country singers, including Jade Flores, Ethan Payne and Chloe Channell) but what a ride!
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