"Chiseled it down" — Craig Campbell on American Idol production not airing his performance 

Craig Campbell has been appearing on American Idol in several episodes. However, there is something that the production held back when airing their regular, prerecorded episodes. It turns out that the country singer delivered a performance that was never shown before.

Craig is appearing on American Idol to support his daughter's friend Mattie Pruitt. Along with that, he explained how some of Mattie's moments were also skipped by production. Talking about the same to Taste of Country, he explained,

"They chiseled it down to three minutes from 14 hours of sitting around and twiddling our thumbs. It was two days, from morning 'til, the sun was down when we left."

Another facet of her performance, which Craig felt was important to Mattie, was when she got her ticket. However, this was also not shown on TV. Soon, after seeing him supporting the young contestant, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan asked him to hit the microphone and perform a song.

American Idol's production skipped airing Craig Campbell's fun audition performance

When Craig was asked by the American Idol judges to sing something on the stage, he was confused as to what he should perform. Initially, he was hoping to sing 'Stuck on You,' however, Lionel Richie convinced him to do 'Outskirts of Heaven.'

Craig explained,

"I played a little bit, and Lionel came down and shook my hand and was like, 'Dude, that was amazing!'"

Craig thinks that his performance on the American Idol stage was "cool," but he revealed not gotten the footage of that. Given the fact that it also didn't make the cut to air on TV, he has not been able to see the whole thing either.

But given his many connections within the industry and now that he has almost become a regular audience member on the show to support Mattie, it won't be long before he gets his hands on that tape.

Talking about his experience with the show and how they process everything, Craig explained that it is a long process as the production had compressed the 14 hours of waiting for the results and doing nothing into not even 5 minutes of the episode.

He advises young singers who are hoping to have a journey to the show that they bring their charger along, to "play solitaire."

As for the show, it has shortlisted the Top 14 contestants as of its April 21 episode. It also includes Mattie Pruitt, who has been supported throughout her journey by singer Craig Campbell.

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American Idol Season 23 episodes can be watched weekly on Sundays and Mondays at 8 PM Eastern Time on ABC. Later, the episodes are available to stream via Hulu.

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