ABC/Josh VertucciNow that Luke Bryan has wrapped his What Makes You Country tour for the year, he’s busy devoting his attention to shooting his second season of American Idol. And when it returns in 2019, Luke believes you’ll notice a more experienced panel of judges.
“The knowledge that we’ve gained doing a whole season — from how we interact with one another to knowing whether a contestant is gonna survive later — [is valuable], Luke tells ABC Radio. “Some of these contestants can kind of fool us on the audition day.”
Luke adds that he and fellow judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie have toughened up during the auditions.
“There was one male singer,” he recalls, “I mean, we ripped him the whole time. We were on him, we were on him, we were on him!”
“Because we’ve learned that the only time we can really tell these kids [anything] is right now,” Luke explains. “So if we have anything we need to tell ’em to move forward with… [we should do it in the auditions].”
Ultimately, the panel’s dose of tough love was followed by good news for that particular contestant.
“After we spent 15 minutes going, ‘You got to do this better’…’, [it was,] ‘Oh, you’re going to Hollywood!’ I guess that’s ‘Welcome to the business,’ y’know?” he laughs.
Fans can also rest assured the chemistry between Luke, Katy and Lionel has only gotten better.
“I rely on very good editors to edit…” Luke offers, as Katy finishes, “…And to make sure his career doesn’t explode.”
Then Lionel jumps in: “Katy and Luke need amazing editors because what they leave out could sink four ships. I just want you to understand.”
“Not me! Luke!” Katy objects.
“Not me! Katy!” Luke says, mocking her.
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