Sugarland to Appear as Mentors and Performers on ‘American Idol’

Sugarland will appear on American Idol on Monday night, April 9, to both mentor and perform with some of the contestants. It’s an honor, and a responsibility, that the duo, made up of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, don’t take lightly.

“That platform as a whole is fascinating because it has launched a whole new part of the industry and it has changed the industry,” says Nettles. “It used to be that to be a musician there were different sort of dues that one had to pay before one could get to a place of having such exposure. And those shows are interesting because they shove the exposure first before the dues and so you get to see an interesting part of that artist’s trajectory.

“But at the end of the day it ends up like anything else,” she continues. “A very few of them actually ever make it. The part that is successful for the television piece is the drama of it, of somebody winning and somebody losing. But whether or not one actually goes on to make a career out of it, the percentages of that are basically just like they are for anyone else.”

The “Still the Same” singers were initially mistaken by Train frontman Pat Monahan as contestants on the show, when they were both on the Idol set, which made them question if they actually ever could have appeared on a reality TV talent show.

“It was funny for a second and it just rushed over me really quickly just as the joke faded,” Bush recalls. “Could I ever be a contestant on something like this? And then I thought, I don’t think I could, and if I did what would I learn? I just started asking questions and I don’t have good answers but it was a cool question to ask.”

American Idol was only in Season 3 when Sugarland released their debut Twice the Speed of Life album in 2004. Since that record, the TV show has continued to permeate much of the music business, a fact Bush is seeing first-hand.

“I’ve noticed a unique shift because I work with a lot of new artists now that they have the language that has [been] started by American Idol,” he says. “Not, ‘Are you good or not?’ but ‘Is that the right song for you?’ So now those are two separate pieces that America now has language to have an opinion about that has never really been there before. It isn’t like, ‘Man, that Steven Tyler sure is good but that ‘Dream On,’ that’s just not his song.’ You know, like, ‘What?!’ So it’s beautiful and its effect is completely covered the musical and entertainment landscape.”

Sugarland will have plenty to keep them busy after their appearance on Idol. The pair just announced their album, Bigger, will be released on June 8, marking their first new set of tunes since 2010’s The Incredible Machine.

“I think there’s something with Sugarland that is a higher calling,” Nettles tells Nashville’s Tennessean. “What we’ve been writing for this new record, it is clear we had things inside of us that we felt the world needed to hear. I think translating that pain into hope is something that Sugarland does really well.”

Sugarland’s Still the Same Tour kicks off on May 4. Dates can be found on their website.

The American Idol episode with Sugarland airs at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: Instagram/Sugarland