Carrie Underwood is smokin' hot!
The country superstar released "Smoke Break" last month, and E! News has an exclusive behind the scenes look at what went in to making the music video. The song—produced by Jay Joyce and written by Underwood, Chris DeStefano and Hillary Lindsey—is the first single from Underwood's fifth album, Storyteller, available Oct. 23. Randee St. Nicholas, who directed Underwood's "Blown Away" music video three years ago, was once again working behind the camera. "'Smoke Break' is all about the overworked, stressed out person," Underwood, 32, explains.
The music video shows Underwood's car breaking down in the middle of the desert. Additionally, the musician cast "gorgeous, strong women" to play a horse trainer, a truck driver and a waitress. "It just tells a story," Underwood says of featuring blue collar characters. "These are everyday jobs, and we need a break."
The seven-time Grammy Award winner was excited to work with DeStefano and Lindsey after previously joining forces in 2012 for Blown Away. "The three of us together just seem to be a really great team," says Underwood, who adds that "Smoke Break" was written in April. "It was such a gorgeous day," she recalls. "We all three would go outside and sit around. I was like, 'This feels like a smoke break.'"
The rest, as they say, is history.
Underwood enjoyed the two-day music video shoot, and she hopes fans will enjoy her album, too. "I really hope that people that have been with me for the past 10 years like this direction that we've gone in," she says of her evolution as an artist since winning Fox's American Idol in 2005. "I just can't force it. It's just kind of where everything took me this time. So, I really hope that they enjoy this new sound."
Given the single's instant popularity, she needn't have worried about such matters.
Including "Smoke Break," Storyteller features 13 all-new tracks.
Meanwhile, it was recently announced that Underwood is teaming up with DICK's Sporting Goods to show the new CALIA by Carrie Underwood line at the brand's first-ever New York Fashion Week event on Sept. 10. The next day, she will join Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum and Zac Posen as a guest judge on the season finale of Lifetime's Project Runway, taping Sept. 11 and airing Nov. 5 at 9 p.m. ET/ 8 p.m. CT.
For more behind the scenes moments from Underwood's "Smoke Break" music video and details on Storyteller, watch E! News tonight at 7 and 11.