WATCH: Kentucky Construction Worker Wows ‘American Idol’ Judges

A musically gifted Kentucky man has advanced to the next round of “American Idol.”

Noah Thompson is a 19-year-old construction worker in the small town of Louisa, Kentucky, in Lawrence County, and he submitted a virtual audition for “American Idol” only because his best friend and coworker Arthur Johnson told him to. 

It paid off, though — he’s going to Hollywood.

You can watch Noah’s audition in this video:

Johnson auditioned in front of Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. In his audition, Thompson sang “Giving You Up” by Kameron Marlowe and accompanied himself on the guitar.

Bryan asked him to sing the chorus again with more intention, and after that, he and his fellow judges had only accolades for Thompson.

Richie told Thompson, “You got a real life-story-telling badass voice,” and Katy Perry said, “You are the American Dream.”

“You’re why this job is cool,” Luke Bryan said. “We’re really, really excited you’re here.”

In the video, the judges bring Johnson into the room to talk about Thompson’s path to “American Idol” and joke about Johnson becoming Thompson’s manager.

Katy Perry said, “Thank you, Arthur, for seeing him better than he could see himself.”

All three judges gave Thompson a “yes” vote.

As is American Idol tradition, they told him in sync, “You’re going to Hollywood!”

 You can follow Thompson’s continuing story on his Facebook page. In a recent post, Thompson said he is “over the moon by all the nice comments” and thanked followers for their support.

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This article appears in February 16, 2022.