photo from incolors.clubCarrie Underwood and Mike Fisher — one of the few solid marriages in country music. I mean, marriage is difficult, and these two have stuck it out.
Underwood, we all know, came from a town of about 3,000 people (Checotah, OK) and rose to fame after her American Idol win in 2005. She didn’t dwindle and fade, as most American Idol winners do. She’s won six Grammys, more than 95 honors, sold more than 64 million records, and has toured numerous times.
Fisher, on the other hand, is a Canadian (Peterborough, Ontario) and grew up playing hockey. The Ottowa Senators (NHL) drafted him in 1998, and has had a solid career, eventually moving to the Nashville Predators. In 2012, he won the NHL Foundation Player Award.
So how did a small-town country girl meet a Canadian hockey player? Well, an arranged meeting, a “hot” text message, and many months of long-distance phone calls.
photo from CBS Sports
Dating wasn’t easy for Underwood, what with all the fame and success. But then Mark Childers, the bassist in Underwood’s band, decided he wanted to set her up with Fisher.
“I mean, can I make dating more difficult?” she said about that time, according to Examiner.com. “Let’s get a hockey guy who lives in another country. Awesome.”
She went along with the setup, but with some stipulations of her own. She didn’t want to do a blind date and she didn’t want to meet Fisher one-on-one. So she and Childers arranged for her and Fisher to introduce themselves at a meet-and-greet session at one of her concerts. Why do it this way?
“Because if he’s weird, I don’t wanna deal with it,” she said.
She was worried he might be a dork. But he turned out to be alright. After the meet-and-greet, Underwood sent Childers a text about Fisher: “Hot, hot, hot.”
But was the feeling mutual?
“First time I saw her, she was more beautiful in person than on TV,” Fisher said, according to Examiner.
“We talked on the phone for almost three months before we actually got together,” he said. “That was good for us. Then our first real date was on New Year’s Eve, and our first kiss was when the ball dropped.”
In hindsight, Underwood is glad it happened the way it did.
“We were in front of people, and he’s not a big PDA guy,” she said. “I figured, I’ll go in for it because he can’t leave me hanging, right? So I made him kiss me in public.”
It wasn’t until dessert that Fisher knew things were going to be just fine. Things were, to say the least, comfortable.
Underwood started eating Fisher’s dessert and offering him hers.
“That’s when I kind of knew things were going OK,” Fisher said with a grin.
The two were engaged on December 20, 2009, and married on July 10, 2010. At the wedding, Underwood surprised Fisher with a performance from one of their favorite artists, Brandon Heath. He sang “Love Never Fails” during the couple’s first dance, according to heavy.com.
“He knew what to expect,” Underwood said about being with a fellow celeb. “In Canada, he was a big celebrity, so he knows what it’s like living under a microscope. And he travels a lot, which is good for both of us. We’re both independent people, so we can’t have somebody around 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We can go weeks without seeing each other,” she continued. “He’s the only guy I’ve never had to worry about. Any guy I’ve ever dated, there would always be that doubt … ‘He didn’t answer his phone … what’s he doing? It’s late.’ I’m not the crazy-girlfriend type, but there was a little voice in the back of my head.
