Look at everybody on there, at home.
I'm so happy to see you.
Thanks for having me.
We pulled in the parking lot and were
like, gosh, it's been a while since we've been here.
I know, I know.
I'm so happy to see you in person here.
As I just said, I had COVID, you had COVID, you recently had it.
How did you have it?
You know, I had like one or two days where it was pretty bad
but I never lost my taste and smell,
and then I got back rocking and had a little fatigue but then,
heck, I'm back to normal.
Good.
Feeling OK.
I'm glad you're healthy.
I know that you said when you're sick obviously
you're not drinking.
It was at the longest you've gone without a beer.
That is definitely the longest stint without a beer.
Just beer in the afternoon.
Just.
Look.
Oh, gosh.
Thank you, Ellen.
You always have the ability.
[APPLAUSE]
Though it's Cinco de Mayo tomorrow.
[APPLAUSE]
So is the eve, right?
Yeah.
It's Cinco de Mayo eve.
Yeah.
All right Ellen.
Just let me savor.
All right.
Enjoy it.
I can still taste it.
Oh good.
[LAUGHTER]
It was a test to see if you could still taste.
I have the taste.
Hey, let's talk about Idol.
You know what, I'm here and you're like.
I'm loving it.
Thank you, that means the world.
I'm loving it.
I think the group of people you'll
have this year, the chemistry between the three of you,
it's great, it's great.
But everyone's upset because you brought people back
from last season, and the people from this season
are going home.
Why did you all decide to do that?
Well, first, what I'm learning about my position
is a lot of people get upset either way.
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
You know what was interesting with bringing the show--
I love the idea that these kids last year just
never got a chance to be on the big show,
with all the lights and the cameras
and to get the wardrobe and all that.
Yes, so we brought back last year's contestants.
And then after they did the--
I guess they called it the comeback show.
I mean I'm reading the chatter too and I'm like,
Oh, people are not liking this.
And then Arthur Gunn comes back and actually he
was a pretty big fan favorite last year,
and developed obviously a big following
and then he comes back, and now he's in our top seven.
So then we're like, we're kind of validated
that we brought them back.
Yeah.
He's great.
He's not taking advantage of the wardrobe situation
but [LAUGHTER] he is super talented.
Yeah.
I think all of these kids in the top 10--
some of them get sent home or they have tons of promise.
And I think us as judges, we love just building these kids
up, no matter what levels they have to go home.
It's not fun these rounds when these kids we fall in love
would go home.
Well like you said, I'm probably going
to have just every single one of them on that
whenever they're voted up, because I love them all.
Thank you for bringing Beane.
Yeah.
Of course.
That is amazing.
When we hear a fellow celebrity support,
it just makes us feel good.
We're putting out the good vibes in making a great show.
It's a great group of people.
It's great that they get advice from you, who
is the Entertainer of the Year.
Yo got your title Entertainer of the Year.
[APPLAUSE] They should be listening to you about what
they should be doing on stage, because that's a pretty--
you took it away from what's this guy?
Thomas Rhett.
Yeah, that guy.
[LAUGHTER]
Now that I thought about it, because the ACMs got delayed,
they got delayed, and then he wins
and he only gets a half year.
[LAUGHTER] You know.
It's not there.
I get my full year.
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Maybe I need to sit down with him,
and I'll grant him 33 and 1/3 or whatever, I can't do the math.
[LAUGHTER] But I'll grant him a couple extra months.
All right, good.
[LAUGHTER]
I think he's here soon, I'll talk to him about it.
Come clean my pool or something at the house,
I'll let him have two or three extra months
of walking around telling everybody [INAUDIBLE]
If he cleans your pool.
[LAUGHTER] We have to show this clip,
this has 30 million views on TikTok.
There's a lot of pranks going on at your house.
But this is your wife and your friend did this to you.
[VIDEO PLAYING]
That's not my friend, that's my nephew by the way.
[LAUGHTER]
[VIDEO PLAYING] In their check, I'll check the bar.
Look at my outfit, how terrible.
[SHOUTING] [LAUGHTER]
That'll throw a man's back out.
Yeah.
That will slip a disc.
She can fit in a tiny space.
But what's funny now, she was in there
for like a good 25, 30 minutes.
Oh my God, that's way too long.
[HORN]
Oh my gosh.
[LAUGHTER]
That's all we can do right now.
We can't with COVID.
You know she air horns me too.
[LAUGHTER]
I guess I got to take out an insurance policy on my ear.
All right.
Well.
Anything else in there?
I don't know.
[LAUGHTER] Now you're breaking it.
Now we can't use it again.
All right.
I should have picked up on all that.
He wouldn't get in there just to hand me one beer.
Well.
[LAUGHTER]
He's got more shenanigans.
He would.
It is shenanigans, we like shenanigans.
All right, more with Luke after this.
[LAUGHTER]
You have a new documentary, behind the scenes
and exploring a lot about very personal things.
First of all, I love it but what made you want to do that?
Well, you know I was in the evolution of artists that
started hiring camera guys to come out and document stuff
for weekly, just weekly posts and stuff.
And through that, my director of the documentary, Michael
Monaco, he was capturing my life.
And there's the challenges--
A, the challenges of trying to navigate the music business.
But then, the challenges of all of the loss
of some of my siblings and my family members.
I mean we felt like, let's put this thing out,
it's been a tough year for everybody.
And if people see my challenges and the things
that I've had to go through in life,
maybe it'll inspire some people certainly
in these times to dust themselves off and keep
rocking.
Yeah.
You certainly have [INAUDIBLE] if they don't know about it,
they'll see the amount of loss that you have experienced.
And what you're doing for your sister's kids
and how they're part of your family now, it's great.
Yeah.
I tell people when I see, if you live this life long enough,
life's going to get you.
You can't be living this long, beautiful life
without some ups and downs and challenges,
and we've certainly had those.
I think this documentary documentary really
shows just the struggles and stuff that you have
to deal with from time to time.
You know what you don't address which
I was hoping you'd address in the documentary,
is being the father of Maren Morris' child.
[LAUGHTER] I mean, why don't you talk about that.
So I'm having coffee and my mother calls me, and she goes,
I'm sitting here reading some gossip thing which--
I don't know how she subscribes to an online gossip thing
anyway--
and then she goes, it says your married
or you fathered Maren Morris' child and I'm like, Oh my gosh,
I do not need this today.
[LAUGHTER] So my current single that's out now,
Waves, was written by Maren's husband, Ryan Hurd.
I shared it from my mother straight to Ryan
and I said, buddy, I think we need to talk.
[LAUGHTER] I'm not.
You are not.
I am not the father.
We can call Maury Povich here or however you
want to go about it.
We have the test here, we're going to get it backstage.
[LAUGHTER] All right Luke, thank you for being here.
Luke's Deluxe album, Born Here Live Here Die Here
is available on streaming services now.
He's sharing a song with us when we come back.
Luke Bryan everybody.
[CLAPPING]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK] Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos.
Like videos of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer.
And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
[SHOUTING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
God.