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Maren Morris Says ‘American Idol’ Audition Ticket Feels Like a ’10th Place Trophy’ After Show Passed on Her in 2007

Maren Morris Says American Idol Audition Ticket Feels Like a 10th Place Trophy After Show Passed on Her in 2007
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Looking back and laughing. Before she was a star, Maren Morris was just a teenager getting rejected at an American Idol audition — and her mother has the proof.

Related: Maren Morris' Most Critical Quotes About the Country Music Industry

“My mom found my American Idol audition ticket from 2007. I didn’t make it past the first round cattle call,” the “Bones” singer, 32, shared via Twitter on Monday, July 18, alongside a snap of the faded ticket stub.

She concluded: “I wasn’t really into sports growing up but this feels like the equivalent of your mom saving your 10th place trophy.”

Maren Morris Says American Idol Audition Ticket Feels Like a 10th Place Trophy After Show Passed on Her in 2007
Courtesy of Maren Morris/Twitter

The Texas native’s audition didn’t even make it into an episode. “I have this very traumatic, vivid memory of auditioning for American Idol when I was 17, in Dallas where I’m from. It was at the Cowboys Stadium, ” Morris explained during a September 2019 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“You know, you don’t see Paula [Abdul] and Simon [Cowell] and Randy [Jackson] in the first go audition,” she said, referring to the original judges panel. “It’s, like, a stadium cattle call, and you audition for a 20-year-old producer who has, probably, like, no music cred.”

Related: Biggest 'American Idol' Scandals and Controversies Through the Years

That doesn’t mean it was any less pressure on the “Circles Around This Town” songstress. “You just sing for, like, eight seconds and sing your heart out and then my entire group got cut,” she recalled. “They’re like ‘Sorry! You have to take the walk of shame.’”

Morris revealed her mother was with her that day. “I had to walk through the walk of shame out to the parking lot and find my mom’s car and just cry on the way home with her, but — I mean — it all worked out,” she said.

Before releasing her self-titled EP in 2015 and scoring the record deal that would skyrocket her career, Morris tried to find success on several talent shows. In addition to Idol, she tried out for The Voice, America’s Got Talent and Star Search. “It was all a no,” she told host Seth Meyers.

However, there are no hard feelings. “Honestly, the poetic justice of that whole thing is that now people audition with my songs on those shows,” Morris concluded. “I just get the check in the mail.”

Related: Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd's Relationship Timeline

Ten years after getting rejected from Idol, Morris won her Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for her song “My Church.” She has also earned several CMA Awards, Billboard Music Awards and ACM Awards within the last five years.

When she’s not scoring accolades for her songs, she’s on mom duty. Morris and husband Ryan Hurd, who she married in 2018, welcomed son Hayes in March 2020.

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