“NO Alcohol”: A Carrie Underwood “Rules List” From Over 20 Years Ago Was Found In An Abandoned Arkansas Music Venue

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A fascinating piece of country music history may have been found in an unlikely place.

A Redditor in rural Arkansas is making headlines after discovering a piece of paper indicating some kind of “Backstage Rule List” for country music icon, Carrie Underwood, inside a long-abandoned music venue. If you’ve never experienced the wonderful world of Reddit, you are missing out. The website that can best be described as an internet sounding board is always capable of creating or presenting a viral moment, and right now, the sub-Reddit “r/FoundPaper” is having a moment thanks to a piece of paper that someone found in an abandoned nightclub.

What’s so special about this list? It gives strict and detailed instructions to keep alcohol away from Carrie Underwood.

The Redditor says he was exploring a building that used to be the called “The North 40” in Russellville, Arkansas when he came across this paper. It’s titled at the top “Rules for Carrie Underwood,” and then proceeds to list eight steps that all basically revolve around Underwood not needing to partake or even be around alcoholic beverages.

That’s easier said than done in a nightclub.

The paper makes it very clear that all of these rules are enforced by the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control), and lays out these guidelines for Carrie Underwood:

-An adult should be with her at all times

-Carrie can’t go to bar or dance floor

-She’s only to drink Coke or Water

-No alcohol allowed at the table she’s sitting at

-No drinks are to be on stage when she’s performing

-She’s allowed to sign pictures or anything else as long as an adult is with her

Sounds like DJ Dave liked to run a tight ship (the last instruction says any questions should be directed towards DJ Dave).

As you might imagine, that piece of paper has rocketed up to the top of the “r/FoundPaper” subreddit, and has even gotten a lot of attention online. Why would a paper like that, which is basically making sure that country music superstar Carrie Underwood doesn’t drink or have an alcoholic beverage even in reach, exist? Well… the explanation is probably more mundane than social media sleuths would wish.

Based upon those instructions, one could easily assume that Carrie Underwood was underage at the time of her performance at The North 40 nightclub. That would explain why she “needed an adult” with her at all times, and why it was strongly suggested to keep all drinks away from her. And ABC undoubtedly represents the Alcoholic Beverage Control, and not the TV network (American Idol was on FOX when Carrie won back in 2005).

Since Carrie turned 21 in 2004, and started performing even before then, this was likely a performance from before she was the legal drinking age. Underwood was actually 21-years-old when she auditioned for and eventually won the fourth season of American Idol. So if she did perform at The North 40, and this paper is legit, Carrie was probably on the rise and gaining traction in her music career… but it was still prior to her time on American Idol. Carrie actually went to Nashville and auditioned for Capitol Records when she was just 14 years old, and Russellville, Arkansas, is only a couple hours from Carrie’s hometown… not a stretch all to imagine she played a show here in the early 2000s.

So even though it’s going viral, there’s probably a rather boring explanation to it all. And in case you were wondering, there were plenty of Carrie Underwood jokes and puns thrown out by other Redditors… here are some of the best ones:

“Rules for Carrie Underage.”

“Maybe next time she’ll think before she drinks.”

“Jesus take the wheel at all times.”

“Surprised ‘DO NOT let her anywhere near my pretty little souped-up four wheel drive’ isn’t on there.”

“And by all that is holy, do NOT feed her after midnight.”

A little Gremlins joke never hurts…