Country fans are still relishing in the thrill of Carrie Underwood‘s stellar return, and the powerhouse singer gave her first television interview since her gruesome fall last November.
“Plain and simple, it was just kind of a freak accident,” Underwood explained to host Hoda Kotb on The TODAY Show Thursday (May 10). “I just tripped taking my dogs out to do their business, so it could’ve happened to anybody. I say if I had fallen anywhere else, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but it was just one step that I went to catch myself on and I missed.”
Underwood previously detailed the fall and the consequential injuries during an interview on iHeartRadio’s The Bobby Bones Show. She required over 40 facial stitches as well as surgery for a broken wrist.
“I didn’t know how things were gonna end up,” Underwood said on TODAY. “It just wasn’t pretty.”
Underwood’s long-awaited comeback performance finally arrived at last month’s ACM Awards, during which she debuted her latest single, the evocative ballad “Cry Pretty.” Underwood described the shift in personas she experiences while on stage.
“When I’m singing a song it’s like I’m in the music, and I’m right there living it, and then right as the song ends, I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m just Carrie again,’” she explained. “It’s like the magic ends somehow and I turn into a pumpkin in front of everybody. I’m not a center-of-attention kind of person.”
Although Underwood feared her appearance would take a permanent blunder — and still seems to be adjusting to the public eye again — Kotb pointed out that she’s still looking just as beautiful as she sings.
“I have a dedicated team of professionals who can spackle and paint and paste,” Underwood joked. “Every day I feel a little more back to normal.”
Watch Underwood’s interview below.