Kristy Lee Cook is most known for being a top 10 Finalist on Season 7 of “American Idol”. She has since stayed in the spotlight and is currently co-hosting “The Most Wanted List” on the Sportsman Channel, along with her 2 friends Jess and Jessi Jo. We recently sat down with Kristy to find out more about her and her love for singing, hunting and all things Browning.
(Part 1 of Kristy Lee Cook's Q & A can be found on the Browning Trail Cameras "Behind The Lens" blog.)
HV: Is there a hunt on your “Most Wanted List” that you still haven’t done yet?
KLC: Oh yes! Actually there’s tons. It’s funny because you think of stuff along the way. You’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to do that”. I’ve got an upcoming packing trip in Colorado for elk and that has been my #1 for a long time, so I’m really excited. There’s a lot of adventure type of things that we haven’t done yet that we’re going to do, and the list keeps growing. It’s fun because we bring some people on the show doing their “most wanted list” and the things they’ve always wanted to do.
HV: I just watched your Most Wanted List episode “Haunted”, where you and the girls went on a ghost hunt and a ghost was actually communicating with you. Did that not freak you out?
KLC: It actually didn’t freak me out. I’m the weird one who was antagonizing the ghost. I know both of the girls were a little freaked out but that was a lot of fun.
HV: Did you grow up hunting, or is hunting something that you picked up later in life?
KLC: I didn’t grow up hunting. It’s actually kind of funny because my ex decided that he wanted me to hunt and I wanted him to learn how to ride horses, so I made him a trade. I said “I’ll hunt with you if you ride horses with me.” It was funny because nobody thought that I could kill anything. I remember hitting a deer before and just stopping and crying on the side of the road. I would never have thought that I’d become a hunter. I hated hitting an animal or anything like that. I have the softest heart. And then I went hunting the first time and I was exhausted and tired and I was like “Give me that gun, I’m going to shoot the first thing I see, I’m done hunting!” After that first hunt though, hunting just kind of stuck with me. It’s really all about the adventure and being in the outdoors and enjoying God’s creation. I became a big hunter after that.
HV: Who inspired you the most in pursuing your music career?
KLC: My mom did. My mom was always the one that inspired me to push on with my music career. That was kind of her thing when I was little. She always told me I could sing and is the one that started it all.
HV: Was it more difficult to break into the music industry or the hunting industry?
KLC: The music industry. American Idol opened the door for me in the music world. American Idol was basically the stepping stone and made it a lot easier to get into outdoor television. Singing has always been really hard to get into.
HV: Is Simon Cowell the same in person as he seems on American Idol?
KLC: You know, he is pretty much exactly the same on the show as he is in person. He is definitely just Simon Cowell. He is what he is, both on the show and off the show from what I have experienced.
HV: What is your favorite song to sing?
KLC: Right now, I would say my favorite song to sing is my single that I had called “Airborne Ranger Infantry”. I wrote it from my dad’s poems that he wrote when he was serving in the military.
HV: What advice do you have for a female who is going hunting for the first time this year?
KLC: I would have her go with somebody that knows hunting so she’s not out there just thrown into the woods and doesn’t know what goes on out there. Once you shoot an animal the work isn’t done there. You have to do all the work and pack it out and all that, so I would just encourage her to go with somebody that really knows what they’re doing for her first time that could help coach her and teach her everything she needs to learn. It’s not something that you learn overnight. It takes time and there’s a lot of variables included in hunting. I recommend that you have the right gear for the terrain and the weather, the right gun with the right caliber for what animal you’re hunting.