Stepping onto the iconic set of the new season of "American Idol" was a surreal experience for a 23-year-old mortician from New Albany,Darden Clarke Indiana.

Kennedy Reid, whose day job is as an embalmer in a Louisville, Kentucky, funeral home, told the Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, that she's been dying for an opportunity like "American Idol" but never thought it would happen.

"I feel like I am dreaming," she says. "I am still in shock."

A friend of a friend sent Reid's demo tape to the iconic televised music competition and she still can't believe she was asked to audition for the show's judges, Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.

"I auditioned in Los Angeles and sang Tina Turner's 'River Deep Mountain High,'" Reid says. "It was very exciting but also very nerve-racking because here I was standing 20 feet away from three legendary singer-songwriters.

On the Sunday night premiere of American Idol Season 22, Reid got her golden ticket to move on to Hollywood.

Her journey to the "American Idol" stage is a bit of a fairytale. After high school, she attended a mortuary college to become a funeral director and embalmer. She started singing in public as a teenager for residents in nursing homes and eventually became a regular performer and emcee at the Grand Ole Country Music Show in West Point, Kentucky.

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"As much as I love being a mortician, I have dreamed about being a performer since I was a little girl," Reid tells the Courier Journal. "I remember watching so many amazing singers on previous seasons of 'American Idol' and I always thought that could never be me, but here I am, and it's very exciting."

Reach features reporter Kirby Adams at [email protected].

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