The American Idol judges – Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie – have finally narrowed down the pack of stellar performers to just 26 hopefuls. With so many promising artists, their decisions resulted in some surprising cuts.
Videos by American Songwriter
Trey Louis was a favorite of the judges during his first audition. He applied his rich vocals to Whiskey Myers’ “Stone,” dedicating the performance to one of his best friends who died in a school shooting in 2018. He received a standing ovation from all three judges and a golden ticket to advance to the next round of the competition.
Despite his initial success, whether or not he would make the top 24 was still up in the air, given the caliber of the competition.
“More than half of us are going home,” Louis said prior to his final judgment. “There’s just a lot of surprises.”
Louis walked out to face the judges with his trademark energy and settled in to hear what they had decided.
“Did you enjoy this time?” Perry asked. “Do you feel like you got anything out of it?”
“Oh I got everything out of it, Katy,” Louis said. “I had a real hard time outside of high school, trying to find out what I’m gonna be or what I’m gonna do. Music never even crossed my mind.”
“What American Idol showed me was what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he continued. “It has definitely sent me on a career path that I’m going to enjoy.”
For his final performance, Louis took on Blackberry Smoke’s “Waiting for the Thunder.” His voice was strong throughout the first half of the performance but began to waver during the chorus – a fact not missed by the judges.
“It’s an incredibly hard song to sing but, I’m taking a risk because I know I’m at least going to go out there and put on a show,” Louis said prior to the performance.
Despite the setback, Louis maintained complete control over the crowd, getting them to clap and sing along to the rock anthem.
“Here’s what I think we’re all pretty positive about,” Bryan told Louis. “You are the winner of American Idol in personality. You were clipping along doing good and then you had a pretty big bump in the road.
“You’re the guy – the guys’ guy and you’re everybody’s buddy,” Bryan continued. “That is an amazing quality. When you partner that with a couple more years of you taking that big voice and growing it – there’s a lot of great stuff you have in there.”
The judges then told Louis that he was “very very close” to the Top 24 but, ultimately didn’t make the cut.
“I really found my personality here,” Louis said through tears after hearing he was cut. “Everything that I lost after the shooting. I found it again here and I’m going to carry it with me.”
Louis posted a series of clips after the episode, recapping his time on the show. Check that out, below.
ABC/Eric McCandless
