Teen country singer Alex Miller was given the boot on the episode of American Idol that aired Sunday night – but also got an offer he couldn’t refuse from judge Luke Bryan.
Sitting on the porch of his family’s home in Lancaster, Kentucky, Miller got a Zoom call from Bryan.
“I made some calls to my good friends at the Grand Ole Opry, and they agreed to let my buddy Alex Miller come perform at the Grand Ole Opry,” Bryan told him. "And maybe [I'll] share the stage with you a little bit, if you'll have me.”
Miller, 17, replied: “It would be my honour, Mr. Luke Bryan.”
The country hopeful said he toured the Opry with his family when he was nine years old “and I always said, ‘I’m gonna go out there and sing on that circle one day’ and this is coming full circle for me right now.”
Bryan was making good on something he said at Miller’s Idol audition, where he sang an original, “I’m Over You, So Get Over Me.” When Miller said he would “die and go to heaven” if he played the Opry, Bryan said: “I think I can make a call at some point.”
At the audition, Bryan joined Miller for a rendition of Merle Haggard’s “Big City.”
The teen made it through the early rounds of competition by covering songs by country icons like Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell but, in an episode last week, Bryan urged him to try something outside his wheelhouse.
“I wanna see what Alex Miller morphs into, so throw us a curveball,” the country star told him. “Pick a pop song. How you play this thing, you’re gonna become a legitimate artist and not just the kid from Kentucky.”
Miller, though, performed Merle Haggard’s 1969 track “Silver Wings.” Bryan and fellow judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie eliminated him from the competition for failing to show them some individuality.