US country favourite Carrie Underwood has helped an American Idol contestant cover Bodies by Drowning Pool.
The 42-year-old, who won American Idol in 2005 and now judges on the talent show, joined a contestant called ‘Insite’ in singing the 2001 nu metal floor-filler on the latest episode. The 18-year-old music teacher from Florida also did a rendition of Freak On A Leash by Korn. Watch the footage of his performances below.
After the seemingly impromptu Bodies team-up, Underwood tells her fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan that she’s something of a secret metal fan. “That was high school for me!” she says of the Drowning Pool track, before adding: “I’ve even crowd-surfed people, OK?”
“We are learning about our [fellow] judge,” Richie quips in response.
After the audition, Insite is unanimously voted through to the competition’s second round, which is called “Hollywood Week” and sees contestants perform in front of the judges once again, sometimes in pairs.
Bryan asks Underwood after the audition, “What is your mother gonna say when she sees this?”
“She knows,” she replies.
Drowning Pool released Bodies in May 2001 as the lead single of their debut album Sinner. It was an instant hit, reaching number 34 in the UK and 6 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. That commercial ascent coincided with the band’s appearance on the 2001 Ozzfest tour and got them pushed further up the bill.
Guitarist C.J. Pierce told Metal Hammer in 2023: “Sharon Osbourne ended up moving us up the bill of Ozzfest while we were on the tour. We did the Jägermeister tour straight after, then Music As A Weapon with Disturbed. These were huge arena crowds, but every night we’d go out and do Bodies and you’d see the whole place go up.”
After 9/11, US radio conglomerate Clear Channel tried to get Bodies banned in the US, deeming its lyrics inappropriate for the contemporary cultural climate.
Bassist Stevie Benton remembered in 2023: “It’s always really frustrated me that people took this song – that was about kids at a rock show – and put all these negative connotations on it. When Clear Channel just struck it off, they made it seem like there was a reason for it to be banned. It took away the ambiguity of the song and people’s ability to decide on the meaning for themselves.”
Drowning Pool’s original vocalist Dave Williams died from heart disease in 2002, but the band continue to tour and record. They released single Revolution (The Final Amen) with frontman Ryan McCombs in September and plan to put out their eighth studio album this year.
