Luke Bryan will be sad to see Katy Perry leave American Idol, but he’s not surprised by the singer’s decision.
“I had heard whispers that she was thinking about it – it wasn’t like a huge shock,” Bryan, 47, shared in a recent interview with Taste of Country. “I think she kinda just got caught up in the moment with [Jimmy] Kimmel and maybe announced that she was done.”
Perry, 39, teased that the current season 22 of American Idol will “probably” be her last during a February appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “I mean, I love Idol so much,” she said at the time. “It’s connected me with, like, the heart of America, but I feel like I need to go out and feel that pulse to my own beat, you know what I’m saying?”
She added: “I wanna go and see the world and maybe bring new music. Maybe I’ll come back if they’ll have me one day.” Us Weekly reached out for comment regarding Perry’s exit at the time.
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Bryan told Taste of Country that it’s “been a good run” judging with Perry since season 16 in 2018. “She and I have developed a great friendship and to work alongside her, I mean, heck, I was there before her daughter was born, and now her daughter is 3 or 4 years old.” (Perry and her fiancé, Orlando Bloom, welcomed their daughter, Daisy, 3, in August 2020.)
“Just seeing her be a mother through this whole process. I mean, it’s just been really fun getting to know Katy,” Bryan gushed. “She knows that no matter what her next endeavors are, that she can pick up the phone and call me and check in and say hey. If she ever needs fishing advice or any random stuff like that.”
As for his own future on American Idol, Bryan hinted that it’s up in the air. “Every year we re-kinda negotiate how we do Idol, and it’s a year commitment,” he explained. “It’s not like I have a five-year contract or anything. So when we start getting into the later stages of Idol, we’ll start deciding whether we come back or not, and that’s how we have done it for seven years.”
Back in February, Richie, 74, revealed during his own interview with Jimmy Kimmel that he was “not mad” about Perry’s departure before joking, “It just made me run off the road when I first heard about it. My phone blew up.”
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Richie went on to note that he and Bryan were unaware of Perry’s exit before she announced it but that they think it “makes sense.” He continued: “When Katy says, ‘I want to go and create some stories,’ remember, she’s young. The point is that you have to take some time and actually be an artist.”
While there’s been no word about who will replace Perry’s Idol shoes, one of the show’s most famous alumni said she’d be interested in taking over for the pop star. “Oh hiiii @AmericanIdol – I hear a seat opened up at the judges table! I’m putting my name in the hat! 
,” season 6 winner Jordin Sparks wrote via X in February.
American Idol airs on ABC Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
