Tucson's American Idol contestant talks road to Hollywood

Brook Sample almost didn’t try out when “American Idol” held auditions in Tucson last summer for its final season.

Why bother? she thought. She didn’t make the cut when the show visited Phoenix in 2008.

But friends pushed the 28-year-old performer to take another shot at her dream of singing full-time and audition at the Tucson Convention Center. She waited all day to sing for a producer, and good thing, too.

During the season premiere episodes last week, Sample earned the show’s coveted golden ticket to Hollywood in San Francisco after singing “Cold Day in July” by the Dixie Chicks.

It’s no small thing — that televised performance for celebrity judges was actually Sample’s fourth audition in the process.

“It was a surreal experience,” Sample says. “It was a dream come true because I have watched the show for several years and seen contestants go in, and I never saw how they could do that at all . . . I was so proud I went through with it. You’re being filmed in front of three stars on national television. It’s not the most comforting feeling.”

The televised audition followed a goofy string of clips of Sample apologizing or asking for a re-do. During the audition, Sample apologized to judges Harry Connick, Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban for her “awful” last name, her job as a waitress and a lyrical flub during the performance.

“My heart was beating so fast and I was just waiting for them to give me the answer . . .” Sample says. “I wasn’t confident because I forgot the words and was really nervous and didn’t know what the heck was coming out of my mouth.”

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She got a “yes” from all three judges.

“You have this, obviously, self-deprecating quality about you, but I kind of love it,” says Lopez on the show. “I love, there’s just something I love about you, yes, and your voice is very, very beautiful. I feel like America might love you as much as I do. I think you’re awesome.”

Sample started singing around the age of 7 and never had much formal training. Instead, she imitated artists she loved, such as Shania Twain.

“It’s been healing for my soul,” Sample says of music. “Growing up, I was kind of all over the place because my mother experienced a lot of depression . . . so I guess music was my only constant, and I was good at it.”

Sample grew up in Oklahoma but moved to Tucson about 10 years ago.

Here, she works as a waitress at Thunder Canyon Brewery in the Foothills Mall and performs around Tucson with her band The Grind.

“I’m the lead singer, and we are a variety cover band, and we sing anything from 80s to 90s to now, soft rock and classic rock and country,” Sample says. “We cover it all, really.”