Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Country star Maren Morris said on Late Night that she unsuccessfully auditioned on singing competition shows such as American Idol and The Voice before making it big.
"I have this very traumatic, vivid memory of auditioning for American Idol when I was 17 in Dallas, where I'm from," Morris told host Seth Meyers on Wednesday's show.
Morris explained how she didn't get to sing in front of the show's previous judges, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, and instead performed in front of a young producer. She sang for 8 seconds and was immediately eliminated, along with a large group of contestants.
"I had to like 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," she recalled.
"The poetic justice of that whole thing is that now people audition with my songs on those shows. So I just get the check in the mail," said Morris, who is now 29.
Morris also described what it was like to win the Grammy for Country Solo Performance in 2017 for her song "My Church."
"They called my name, I got up, didn't trip. Walked past Blue Ivy Carter and it was like the craziest thing," she said. "Just being up there was very surreal but it felt very validating. It's like for the rest of your career you get to say that you're this Grammy-winning artist."
Morris performed onstage on Late Night her song "The Bones" from the album Girl.
Morris leads all artists with six Country Music Association Award nominations. The CMA Awards are set to take place on Nov. 13.
