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Carrie Underwood is without question one of the biggest names in the country music industry today, and has been for several years. Who would have thought that someone who got her start on a singing competition reality show would end up becoming such a major voice in the industry?

Underwood has definitely gone through a bit of an evolution over the years, with her look and sound changing a little bit, but that's just part of being an artist — and she's certainly earned her fair share of fans. She has countless awards and her career shows absolutely no signs of slowing down — and in an industry where artists are often forgotten after their debut album, that's a major accomplishment.

Despite her superstardom, she's always been the kind to keep her private life private, and if she can help it, isn't the type to be featured in the pages of tabloids. So, even if you're a huge fan of the country superstar, it's easy to feel like you don't even really know that much about her — until now.

We've got 15 things you didn't know about Carrie Underwood, from how much her wedding cost to what her secret favourite scent is (hint — it's way more disgusting than you would ever guess).

Before American Idol, She Had Never Been On A Plane

Everyone knows Carrie Underwood's journey from a small town farm girl in Oklahoma to a superstar who spends the majority of her time in glitzy Hollywood and her glam home in Nashville. Now, she's constantly on the road, touring or making appearances, and she's definitely no stranger to air travel. Back when she was growing up in Oklahoma, though, she didn't have those opportunities. In fact, before she ended up having to travel for the Hollywood round of American Idol, she had actually never even been on a plane yet! Of course, once she ended up winning the show, she started touring regularly and making appearances and quickly started becoming an air travel veteran. We wonder if she ever looks around while she's lounging in first class (or on a private jet) and just thinks about how far she's come.

She's A Doomsday Prepper

Okay, we have to admit, we never would have guessed this one. Carrie Underwood confessed to Us Weekly that she's actually "a bit of a doomsday preparer" and she teased "make fun of me, but we'll see who survives the zombie apocalypse." While it's definitely true that moms often seem prepared for just about anything — they have to be, they're busy taking care of children all the time! — this is a little beyond. We have so many follow up questions. One kind of prep gear does she have? Is her hubby Mike in on it, or is this just a personal passion? Is she a huge fan of zombie television? We'd love nothing more than to see Underwood appear on an episode of The Walking Dead and put all her survival prep into action.

She Had A Pet Duck Growing Up

Everyone who knows even the slightest thing about Carrie Underwood knows that she's a huge animal lover. She supports animal-centric charities all the time, doesn't eat meat, and is constantly chatting about her passion for all the critters under the sun. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that she had a pet growing up — but the type of pet she had may shock you. It turns out that when she was younger, she had a pet duck named Drake, who would allegedly eat dog food and bite young Carrie from time to time. Given that she grew up in a rural setting, we can kind of understand how such an unusual pet situation may have happened — she probably spotted an adorable duck on the farm and decided he needed to become her new BFF.

Her Wedding To Mike Fisher Cost Half A Million Dollars

Given that she was a rising superstar and Mike Fisher was an established professional athlete when they decided to tie the knot, it isn't surprising that Underwood and Fisher decided to spend a little more on their wedding than the average person might. However, we bet you never would have guessed that these two would drop half a million on a wedding. Sure, in comparison to some celebrity weddings, it doesn't seem like much, but it's still a tremendous amount of money to spend on a one day celebration. However, luckily it seems to be money well spent in this case — the two are still together and happy, even though both of them are in industries where marriages often struggle. All those hours on the road, spent apart, definitely aren't easy, but they seem to make it work!

She's Been A Vegetarian For Over 20 Years (And Still Hates Eggplant)

It seems like just about every day, some celebrity is popping up and claiming they're following a vegetarian or vegan diet. And in most cases, it's because they want to stay slim, not because they're particularly concerned about animal welfare. Carrie Underwood is a different story. She decided as a teenager that she just didn't feel right about eating animals when she was such a huge animal lover, so she became a vegetarian — and she's remained a vegetarian for the past twenty years. Talk about being dedicated to a cause! There's just one vegetable that she still isn't a fan of, all these years later — eggplant. She'll happily scarf down a stir fry, just don't bother serving her eggplant parmigiano! We get it — it's definitely an acquired taste, even for a veggie lover.

She's A Huge Neat Freak

There are always stories leaked to tabloids about celebrities who totally trash hotel rooms, or whose staff reveal that they're huge slobs who live in a pigsty, but that kind of thing is never going to emerge about Carrie Underwood — it turns out she's a huge neat freak. She fully admits her love of cleaning, saying that "I can't function during the day if I know my bed is not made. It will be all I think about throughout the day until it's actually made. My refrigerator is extremely organized. Everything is showing the labels and is arranged in perfect rows." Wow! We have to admit, it kind of makes us want to go on a tour through her home and check out just how sparkling clean it really is.

She Used To Work At A Pizza Joint

Unless you were a child star, chances are, even if you're a celebrity, you've had some kind of a job before fame. Sure, plenty of starlets set out for Hollywood right after graduating high school with big dreams, but most have worked in the service industry or something similar for a while to make ends meet (or to fund their trip to Hollywood!). Carrie Underwood is no exception. Before she was auditioning for reality shows and becoming a huge country star, she was a waitress at a pizza spot back in Oklahoma. Nowadays, you're more likely to see her eating a big salad or vegetable-packed stir fry than a big, greasy pizza, but hey — perhaps all those hours spent slinging pies back in Oklahoma have given pizza a bit of a soft spot in her heart.

She's A Huge Fan Of The Horror Genre — Books, Movies, Everything

We have to admit — if we were to guess what kind of movies Carrie Underwood loved, we would have picked rom coms or comedies. She just seems like such a bubbly, kind person, that we can't really see her settling in to watch mob movies or violent thrillers. However, it seems that in Carrie's case, the more a movie or book scares her, the more she loves it. That's right — she a big horror junkie! It just proves how people can constantly surprise you — and we wonder if she's the one who has to drag hubby Mike Fisher along to the theatre when the latest scary flick comes out. Underwood hasn't really shown any sign that she's looking to enter the acting world, but perhaps she could score a cameo in a horror flick as herself.

She Loves The Smell of Skunks

Everyone has different scents that they love. Some go absolutely crazy for the smell of fresh cut grass, others love the scent of old books, and then of course, everyone loves the smell of fresh baked cookies wafting through the air. However, Carrie has one particular smell that not many people would agree is a good one — skunks. That's right — while most people will do just about anything to avoid the pungent stench of skunk in the air, it seems that Carrie actually likes the scent. Perhaps it's because she grew up in the country, smelling all kinds of natural smells, or perhaps it's just because she's such a huge animal lover that she even loves skunks and everything they do. Either way — if a skunk sprays, we're still running the other way. Sorry Carrie!

She Got Her First Record Deal At 14

Achieving success in your early 20s is still quite young by Hollywood's standards, but it turns out that Carrie actually was on the path to stardom far before she ever stepped foot in front of Simon, Paula and Randy for her audition. Apparently, her talent was so obvious that she was offered a recording deal when she was just 14 years old by Capital Records, who saw her perform. The deal ended up being taken off the table because of some things shifting around in the company though, so she had to put her dreams of a music career on hold for a while. It all worked out for the best, though — Underwood herself has said that "it's a lot better that nothing came out of it, because I wouldn't have been ready then."

She Became The Youngest Member Of The Grand Ole Opry at 26

Even if you really know nothing about country music, and aren't a fan in the slightest, you've probably heard of the Grand Ole Opry. It's an absolute institution, and being inducted into its ranks is probably one of the biggest goals for anyone in the country world. Well, it turns out that Carrie was actually the youngest member inducted — she got the nod when she was just 25 years old, which is absolutely nuts. There are country stars who have been in the industry for decades who haven't yet received that honour, so the fact that she achieved it before even hitting 30 is a huge deal. Plus, it was the legendary Garth Brooks who was there for her induction, which is pretty cool — can you think of a better person to bring you into the hallowed ranks?

She Hates Valentine's Day

Carrie Underwood has a fantastic relationship with her hubby Mike Fisher, and she seems to have a super sunny personality, so we kind of would have assumed that Valentine's Day would be right up her alley. However, it seems that it's definitely not her favourite holiday — she confessed to Us Weekly that she really, really dislikes it. We totally understand. Even for people in a relationship, there can be a lot of pressure that comes along with the supposedly most romantic day of the year — you want to show your partner you care, but you don't necessarily want to get a bunch of cheesy heart-covered junk. We have a feeling that she and her hubby just celebrate in whatever way works for them, or perhaps on other days of the year — and that sounds like a great idea.

She Was A Member Of The Jonathan Taylor Thomas Fan Club

It's always kind of interesting to discover which celebrities actual celebrities love, or loved back when they were younger. After all, it's a total possibility that someone you crushed on when you were a teen would end up becoming someone you're seated next to at a red carpet event — how crazy is that? It seems that Carrie had a huge crush on teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas. She was in seventh grade back when he was at the prime of his popularity, and was actually a member of the Jonathan Taylor Thomas fan club. We have to admit — after learning about her childhood passion for JTT, we kind of hope that she runs into him at an event at some point and gets to meet him face to face, if she hasn't already.

She Got College Credit For Appearing On American Idol 

When she auditioned and got the chance to appear on her season of American Idol, Carrie Underwood was a college student studying Mass Communications. So, how did she explain the need to spend a few weeks away from campus, learning songs and performing every week on live television? Well, easy — she used it as her internship. It turns out that all the students in her program had to find some kind of internship to learn all the behind the scenes details of the industry, and Carrie just let her program know that she'd be getting a behind the scenes glimpse while she was competing. If you think about how much time she would have spent on set, both performing and behind the scenes and doing all the interviews that accompanied the performances, it totally makes sense.

She Had A Black Eye At Her High School Graduation

For most high school girls, graduation is a big deal. You want to look your best, and make sure your hair and make-up is on point, because those baggy gowns definitely don't flatter anyone's figure (and not many people look amazing in those caps). However, Carrie Underwood had a bit of a roadblock thrown in her way when she was preparing for her graduation — she was all set to go, and even had a speech prepared because she was the salutatorian, but she ended up getting hit in the face with a softball just before graduation. So, she ended up having to graduate from Checotah High School with a big ol' shiner. Granted, she probably did her best to slap on the concealer and make the best of it, but still — that stinks!

Sources: glam.com, usmagazine.com, soundslikenashville.com, southernliving.com