Carrie Underwood salutes troops

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 12, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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The Medal of Honor is the subject of a convention ("A Celebration of Valor") next week in Denver. Among its events: Clint Eastwood receives the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment for his depictions of military men in films such as Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. It also includes a Tuesday concert by Carrie Underwood, the American Idol winner who has gone on to be a smash on her own. She has found time to visit the troops overseas and take part in this event. Underwood told Rocky pop music writer Mark Brown in a recent phone interview that it's an honor to be involved in the Medal of Honor organization and is touched that they're recognizing Eastwood. "Everybody's a fan of something that Clint Eastwood has done. I think it's really cool that they're honoring him," she said.

I assume you jumped at the chance to be part of this?

Oh yeah. It's one of those things - no matter what your stand on anything political, it's just a good thing to be a part of, to honor people who have given so much to the country that we live in.

Is there much military history in your family?

I know a couple of my dad's brothers were in Vietnam. My grandfather - he served in maybe World War II, I'm not really sure. He doesn't talk about it . . . When we were in Girl Scouts, we did pen pals with men who were overseas with Desert Storm. We didn't really realize what was happening - it was just kind of 'Fun, pen pal!' Then he'd write back and describe stuff - not scary, because I was a kid - but describe his surroundings. I thought, 'Where is he?' and we'd bust out the map and go 'Wow.' I still have my letters, actually.

Tell us about your trips to entertain the troops.

It's just amazing to me what great spirits everyone seems to be in. We were going right before Christmas. Everybody really tried to make an effort. Things were decorated, they were playing Christmas movies. People were just making an effort to make people appreciate the time of year, just make them feel better. Everybody seems so appreciative of us coming over there. I said: 'I get to go home next week. You just stay here. Thank you.' Everybody seemed to be so 'It's my job.' . . . I even went over there and they said my neighbor who lives three blocks down from me growing up was actually serving there. It was weird to see somebody from my hometown that I knew was over serving in Iraq.

American Idol careers have been hit-and-miss. Yours is huge. Did anyone in particular teach you the ropes?

The one to model your career after when I was on the show was, of course, Kelly Clarkson. You just wanted to duplicate what she did, not just copy, but duplicate the success. It was one of those things that I really trusted the people around me; they'd been there before and done it before.

Anyone that you modeled your personal life on?

There are several people you can look to for inspiration as to how to keep their lives as normal as possible. Alan Jackson was my first concert. The first time I met him, it was like, 'This guy reminds me of my dad.' Somebody who could be a family member, he could be a friend, he could be a neighbor. Brad Paisley has done a great job, so talented, so wonderful. . . . I consider them to be very normal people.

How do you apply that to navigating your own life?

It's just about taking every offer, every suggestion, every anything that comes in and balancing them out, figuring out what's really important. And making time for me in the chaos. There are little things I can do to make sure I don't go crazy. Focusing on myself. I'm on tour for three months and I'm having a trainer. Taking an hour for myself to exercise will help me feel better, hopefully help me look better and keep me sane.

Carrie Underwood

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Pepsi Center

* Cost: $35 to $100

* Information: 303-830-8497 or

medalofhonor2008.org

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