Carrie Underwood: Life in Pictures

1998: First Trip to Nashville

In the mid-90s, another blonde teenager with a big voice was becoming a country music superstar, and there's little doubt other Nashville labels wanted to replicate what Curb Records did with LeAnn Rimes. Underwood almost bit. A local Checotah businessman underwrote a trip to Nashville, where she recorded a number of demos and was offered a contract with Capitol Records. However, things didn't work out. "I honestly think it's a lot better that nothing came out of it now, because I wouldn't have been ready then," she says. "Everything has a way of working out."