Carrie Underwood recalls painful rejection as an artist before 'American Idol'

Carrie Underwood says she does not like to rush her creative process.(Instagram/ carrieunderwood)

Even before she joined the singing competition "American Idol," Christian country songstress Carrie Underwood revealed that she was already considering a singing career.

She went to several record labels and tried to promote her music, but the timing just wasn't right back then. "At 14, I kind of had an artist development thing," Underwood told BBC Radio in a recent interview. "I got a no."

Underwood acknowledged that she was hurt by the rejection, but she understood where it was coming from. "I was a baby then," she said.

She now actually considers their "no" as a blessing in disguise, because if not for it, she would not have auditioned for "American Idol" and experienced everything that she had in the show.

"There's no way I would have been vocally or mentally prepared to go through any of that. I learned a lot. I think I was okay with it," she said. "It's not like somebody sat me down and they were like, 'You're not good enough.'"

Now, Underwood has six albums under her belt. She is responsible for hit songs such as "Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Something in the Water," and is continuing to make waves with her new album "Storyteller."

Underwood believes that people should take chances with their music, and this is what she has been doing throughout her career.  "If everybody had over-thought everything, it would've ended up on a shelf somewhere and what a shame that would have been," she told Music Row Magazine. "You want radio to love it, fans to buy it, you want all those things to happen, but sometimes you have to say, 'This could be bigger than all of that, and you have to follow your heart."

At the same time, Underwood does not like to rush her creative process. "I wait just a little bit longer between albums because I want them to be the best they can possibly be and then go out on the road and live in one album space," she said.