Being married to a superstar singer doesn’t mean you know her songs. Just ask Mike Fisher.
Mike is the husband of country star Carrie Underwood, and he made his own name a long way from any concert stage. He played 17 seasons in the NHL, first with the Ottawa Senators and then with the Nashville Predators. By the time he retired in 2017, he was the Predators’ captain. He came back briefly in 2018 and then hung up the skates for good.
Carrie and Mike got married in July 2010. So you’d think that after a few years together, a few of her hits would have rubbed off on him.
Not quite.
Back in 2014, Carrie sat down with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and let the whole country in on a little secret about life at home. Fox News reported what she said that night, and it’s the kind of thing only a wife could get away with.
According to Carrie, Mike “doesn’t actually know the real lyrics to any song.”
That includes hers. She explained that when she checks to see if he knows her latest release, it doesn’t go well.
“Yet, I’ll ask him what my current single is and he sings all the wrong words. He has no clue.”
It’s a sweet kind of teasing, the kind married couples do all the time. And the timing made the story even better. She was expecting the couple’s first son, Isaiah, who was born in 2015. On that same visit, she told Fallon she’d been singing to her baby bump and that she felt some pressure to sing well for him.
So one of the boys in her life was getting private concerts before he was even born. The other one couldn’t keep her lyrics straight. If you want to see Carrie in that happy, glowing moment, this clip from the same Fallon appearance is a treat.
Carrie on Fallon that same night
Here’s the twist. There is one song Mike knows cold, and it isn’t a country song at all.
It’s “Whoomp! (There It Is),” the 1993 party hit by the duo Tag Team.
Carrie told Jimmy Fallon, Fox News reported, that Mike “doesn’t actually know the real lyrics to any song, except for like, ‘Whoomp! (There It Is)’ will come on the radio.” In other words, when that one comes on, he’s ready.
Of all the songs in the world, the one a hockey captain married to a country superstar has down is a ’90s party hit. You honestly couldn’t make it up.
If it’s been a while since you heard it, or you never knew the title, the music video will bring it right back. One listen and you’ll understand why it stuck with him.
Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” music video from 1993
None of this means Carrie married the wrong guy. In the same Fox News story, she had a much simpler thing to say about him in a separate interview with Taste of Country Nights.
“Mike has the biggest heart.”
He might still get the second verse of her latest single wrong. Carrie doesn’t seem to mind, and if her next song ever comes on right after Tag Team, well, at least he’ll be in a good mood.