Kellie Pickler on Life After ‘American Idol': ‘I’m Very Blessed’

Billy Dukes Fri, May 8, 2026 at 5:51 PM UTC

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©YouTube/AmericanIdol / Eric McCandless, Disney

Kellie Pickler granted a rare interview after her comeback performance on American Idol this week.

The “Red High Heels” singer reflected on her time on the show in 2006, and how her life has turned out since.

Kellie Pickler was a guest on the American Idol podcast, hosted by Danielle Fishel.

On Monday (May 4), she performed alongside finalist Hannah Harper. The two women sang Martina McBride‘s “A Broken Wing.”

She offered no clues that she’ll resume recording or performing soon.

READ MORE: 3 Reasons Why Kellie Pickler’s American Idol Return Was So Special

The roughly 10-minute-long interview begins at about the 17-minute mark. She was glowing after her performance and truly seemed to have enjoyed the evening.

“I hope people really believe me when I say this, it is a family here. It is an Idol family,” she tells Fishel.

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What Has Kellie Pickler Done Since American Idol?

Pickler finished sixth on Season 5 of American Idol in 2006.

Almost immediately, she signed to BNA Nashville and released a trio of Top 20 hits from her Small Town Girl album, including “Red High Heels” and “I Wonder.”

“Best Days of Your Life” from her self-titled album would later become her biggest radio hit.

In 2012, she pivoted to a more traditional sound that produced more critically acclaimed music, but fewer radio hits. The Woman I Am (2013) is her most recent studio album, but hardly her last professional achievement.

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In 2013 she competed on and won Season 16 of Dancing With the Stars.

In 2015, she and husband Kyle Jacobs starred in a reality TV show called I Love Kellie Pickler on CMT.

From 2017 to 2019 Pickler would co-host a daytime television talk show called Pickler & Ben, and after that, she was announced as a radio host on SiriusXM the Highway.

This journey was part of what she reflected on this week.

“A lot of people that watched my season were just kind of growing with me and watched me grow up on TV,” she shares. “And so it’s wild to think, wow, 20 years have passed and a lot’s happened and I’m very blessed. I’m very blessed.”

What Happened to Kellie Pickler’s Husband?

These comments stand out as a contrast to the dark three years she’s had since early 2023, when her husband died by suicide. Since then, Pickler has rarely been seen in public and only performed one other time, at a 2024 tribute to Patsy Cline in Nashville.

It remains to be seen if Monday’s moment will lead to anything greater. Pickler seemed to be living in the moment and used her time in the spotlight to recall her season of finalists.

“I feel like this group, they’re more reserved,” she says near the end of the conversation. “I’m going, ‘We were crazy, but like the good kind of crazy.’ We were fun but they had to always reel us in. We were all like the dog in Up, running in every different direction.”

Kellie Pickler, Full Interview from American Idol

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One final interesting moment from Pickler’s conversation with Fishel was what advice from the show she still relies on today. During her audition, all three judges were complimentary, but Simon Cowell said he thought she was over-singing.

The now 39-year-old singer says she learned to let the microphone do the work that season, meaning she doesn’t need to sing at the top of her lungs to be heard.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”