Singer Mindy McCready dies in apparent suicide
HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - Perhaps there was one heartbreak too many for Mindy McCready.
The former country star apparently took her own life on Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, Ark. Authorities say McCready died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot to the head and an autopsy is planned. She was 37, and left behind two young sons.
McCready had attempted suicide at least three times since 2005, as she struggled to cope amid a series of tumultuous public events that marked much of her adult life.
Speaking to The Associated Press in 2010, McCready smiled wryly while talking about the string of issues she'd dealt with over the last half-decade.
"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said of her life. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."
This time it seems the whirlwind overwhelmed McCready.
Her death comes a month after that of David Wilson, her longtime boyfriend and the father of her youngest son. He is believed to have shot himself on the same porch of the home they shared in Heber Springs, a small vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. His death also was investigated as a suicide.
It was the most difficult moment in a life full of them. McCready issued a statement last month lamenting his death. And she called him her soul mate and a caregiver to her sons in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.
"I just keep telling myself that the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have," she said, according to a transcript of the interview.
Melinda Gayle McCready arrived in Nashville in 1994, still in her teens with tapes of her karaoke vocals and earned a recording contract with BNA Records. She had a few memorable moments professionally, scoring her first No. 1 hit almost immediately.
"Guys Do It All the Time," a self-assured dig at male chauvinism, endeared her to female fans in 1996. She also scored a hit with "Ten Thousand Angels," and her album of that title sold 2 million copies.
Like so many times before, McCready showed a little toughness in the midst of a personal storm, again endearing herself to her fans. But as usual, the brave face for the camera hid a much more complicated internal struggle that surfaced publicly time and again over the last 10 years.
This time, along with her remembrances of finding Wilson as he lay dying, she also answered questions about whether they'd argued earlier that evening about an affair and if she'd shot him.
"Oh, my God," the "Today" transcript reads. "No. Oh, my God. No. He was my life. We were each other's life."
It's unclear what circumstances led to McCready taking her own life, but it appears she was struggling again with twin issues that have persisted for years: substance abuse and the custody of her children.
She checked into court-ordered rehab and gave her children up to foster care earlier this month after her father asked a judge to intervene, saying she'd stopped taking care of herself and her sons, and that she was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.
It's unclear why McCready was out of rehab.
Billy McKnight, McCready's ex-boyfriend and the father of her oldest son, said the children remain in foster care. Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy Webb could not confirm their whereabouts, citing agency rules.
McCready's relationship with McKnight was one of the more difficult periods of her life. McKnight was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted murder after authorities say he beat and choked her. And the two continued to struggle over their son with McKnight recently filing for custody in light of McCready's latest sting in rehab.
McCready made headlines in April 2008 when she claimed a longtime relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28 and married. Clemens has denied the relationship.
On Monday, Clemens handed a written statement to reporters at the Houston Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., where he is serving as a special instructor for the team.
"Yes, that is sad news. I had heard over time that she was trying to get peace and direction in her life. The few times that I had met her and her manager/agent they were extremely nice."
McCready also was engaged to actor Dean Cain in 1997, but their relationship fell apart as well.
Her troubles weren't just romantic. Over time she was arrested for fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs, probation violation, misdemeanor assault of her mother Gayle Inge and other problems.
In 2010, after a stint on Dr. Drew Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab 3" where she was treated for "love addiction," she told The Associated Press she may have finally found love and the strength to get her life back on track.
Pinsky, who had no comment Sunday, called McCready an "angel" in the season finale and expressed hope she would continue to seek treatment in a later interview. McCready suffered a seizure in one of the show's scarier moments. Tests showed she had suffered brain damage, something she attributed to her abuse at the hands of McKnight.
McCready is the fifth celebrity to pass away since appearing on Pinsky's show and the third from Season 3. Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and "Real World" participant Joey Kovar both died of overdoses.
She entered her relationship with Wilson, a producer and musician who was 34 when he died last month, a short time later. She'd just met Wilson and talked openly about their relationship in the 2010 interview. Wilson declined to speak on the record.
With a publicist, reporters, cameras, makeup artists and musicians swirling around her during a press day for her last album, "I'm Still Here," McCready fended off questions about a sex tape and said she and Wilson started out as friends.
"And I've never had a relationship like that before where we started completely as friends," she said. "It turned into friends really caring about each other and then it turned into love and I've never had that happen before."
Things didn't remain calm for long, though. Unhappy with custody arrangements, McCready took her older son from her mother, the boy's legal guardian, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found McCready hiding in a home without permission and took the boy into custody.
She and Wilson had their son in April 2012, and she regained custody of Zander in December. But Wilson's death appears to have led to another dark period.
"I met Mindy at 23 coming off of a big record, and from knowing her as personal as I did back then, sometimes being famous can hurt you," McKnight said in a phone interview Monday from Tampa, Fla. "I think she was too young. I think that she was having some personal issues in her life and her family anyways, and when she got famous ... she started mixing booze and pills and the negativity, it took the best of her."
___
Music Writer Chris Talbott reported from Nashville, Tenn. Sports Writer Noah Trister, in Kissimmee, Fla., contributed to this report.
The former country star apparently took her own life on Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, Ark. Authorities say McCready died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot to the head and an autopsy is planned. She was 37, and left behind two young sons.
McCready had attempted suicide at least three times since 2005, as she struggled to cope amid a series of tumultuous public events that marked much of her adult life.
Speaking to The Associated Press in 2010, McCready smiled wryly while talking about the string of issues she'd dealt with over the last half-decade.
"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said of her life. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."
This time it seems the whirlwind overwhelmed McCready.
Her death comes a month after that of David Wilson, her longtime boyfriend and the father of her youngest son. He is believed to have shot himself on the same porch of the home they shared in Heber Springs, a small vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. His death also was investigated as a suicide.
It was the most difficult moment in a life full of them. McCready issued a statement last month lamenting his death. And she called him her soul mate and a caregiver to her sons in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.
"I just keep telling myself that the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have," she said, according to a transcript of the interview.
Melinda Gayle McCready arrived in Nashville in 1994, still in her teens with tapes of her karaoke vocals and earned a recording contract with BNA Records. She had a few memorable moments professionally, scoring her first No. 1 hit almost immediately.
"Guys Do It All the Time," a self-assured dig at male chauvinism, endeared her to female fans in 1996. She also scored a hit with "Ten Thousand Angels," and her album of that title sold 2 million copies.
Like so many times before, McCready showed a little toughness in the midst of a personal storm, again endearing herself to her fans. But as usual, the brave face for the camera hid a much more complicated internal struggle that surfaced publicly time and again over the last 10 years.
This time, along with her remembrances of finding Wilson as he lay dying, she also answered questions about whether they'd argued earlier that evening about an affair and if she'd shot him.
"Oh, my God," the "Today" transcript reads. "No. Oh, my God. No. He was my life. We were each other's life."
It's unclear what circumstances led to McCready taking her own life, but it appears she was struggling again with twin issues that have persisted for years: substance abuse and the custody of her children.
She checked into court-ordered rehab and gave her children up to foster care earlier this month after her father asked a judge to intervene, saying she'd stopped taking care of herself and her sons, and that she was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.
It's unclear why McCready was out of rehab.
Billy McKnight, McCready's ex-boyfriend and the father of her oldest son, said the children remain in foster care. Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy Webb could not confirm their whereabouts, citing agency rules.
McCready's relationship with McKnight was one of the more difficult periods of her life. McKnight was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted murder after authorities say he beat and choked her. And the two continued to struggle over their son with McKnight recently filing for custody in light of McCready's latest sting in rehab.
McCready made headlines in April 2008 when she claimed a longtime relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28 and married. Clemens has denied the relationship.
On Monday, Clemens handed a written statement to reporters at the Houston Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., where he is serving as a special instructor for the team.
"Yes, that is sad news. I had heard over time that she was trying to get peace and direction in her life. The few times that I had met her and her manager/agent they were extremely nice."
McCready also was engaged to actor Dean Cain in 1997, but their relationship fell apart as well.
Her troubles weren't just romantic. Over time she was arrested for fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs, probation violation, misdemeanor assault of her mother Gayle Inge and other problems.
In 2010, after a stint on Dr. Drew Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab 3" where she was treated for "love addiction," she told The Associated Press she may have finally found love and the strength to get her life back on track.
Pinsky, who had no comment Sunday, called McCready an "angel" in the season finale and expressed hope she would continue to seek treatment in a later interview. McCready suffered a seizure in one of the show's scarier moments. Tests showed she had suffered brain damage, something she attributed to her abuse at the hands of McKnight.
McCready is the fifth celebrity to pass away since appearing on Pinsky's show and the third from Season 3. Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and "Real World" participant Joey Kovar both died of overdoses.
She entered her relationship with Wilson, a producer and musician who was 34 when he died last month, a short time later. She'd just met Wilson and talked openly about their relationship in the 2010 interview. Wilson declined to speak on the record.
With a publicist, reporters, cameras, makeup artists and musicians swirling around her during a press day for her last album, "I'm Still Here," McCready fended off questions about a sex tape and said she and Wilson started out as friends.
"And I've never had a relationship like that before where we started completely as friends," she said. "It turned into friends really caring about each other and then it turned into love and I've never had that happen before."
Things didn't remain calm for long, though. Unhappy with custody arrangements, McCready took her older son from her mother, the boy's legal guardian, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found McCready hiding in a home without permission and took the boy into custody.
She and Wilson had their son in April 2012, and she regained custody of Zander in December. But Wilson's death appears to have led to another dark period.
"I met Mindy at 23 coming off of a big record, and from knowing her as personal as I did back then, sometimes being famous can hurt you," McKnight said in a phone interview Monday from Tampa, Fla. "I think she was too young. I think that she was having some personal issues in her life and her family anyways, and when she got famous ... she started mixing booze and pills and the negativity, it took the best of her."
___
Music Writer Chris Talbott reported from Nashville, Tenn. Sports Writer Noah Trister, in Kissimmee, Fla., contributed to this report.
Addiction and depression. Chicken and the egg. Addiction is destructive to all touched by it. Too bad her children have had their childhood ruined by it. Let's all hope they can find a stable home. And that they aren't genetically & psychologically doomed.
I still haven't gotten over Keith Whitley
PHEW!!! I'm so glad the system worked once again. What a great system!
Admits on the public record she is "addicted to violent relationships."
In and out of mental institutions and drug/alcohol rehab for close to a decade.
Criminal record.
So unstable kids taken away from her by the courts.
Just earlier this month admitted to inpatient mental health care.
But good golly what do you know, the "law" protected her. It made sure that her God given right to possess a gun to blow her brains out with was not impeded upon.
If there was every a poster child for -WHY DID SHE HAVE A GUN AND WHERE EXACTLY DID IT COME FROM AND WHY IF SHE HAD LEGAL POSSESSION WERE THEY NOT TAKEN WHEN SHE WAS ADMITTED FOR INPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH CARE JUST THIS MONTH - here it is.
I see background checks and mental health removal as no different then the same argument for TSA pat downs and the government listening to our phone calls without warrants. The only ones complaining about background checks must have something to hide. A little violent past maybe? A stint in the hospital for drinking too much Wild Turkey or snorting the Peruvian dancing dust. Maybe slapped around a girlfriend when they were 20 and young/dumb and full of you know what?
Ehhh - who cares - her rights were protected. Phew!
Gotta be a country song somewhere is this tragedy..
And here's more from the news: She shot the family dog before killing herself. - From dailymail. Â
I HAVE NO SYMPATHY for this.
Be careful what your doctor offers you. Prescription drug industry is a business made to profit off of you. The drugs are addicting, and if you abuse them, you will lose your mind. There is no doubt about it.
@Release The Cracken Or in my case my prescription anti depression med keeping me alive and functioning, so you never know LOL
Yeah we heard ya the first time Mr. Pedantic. Gotcha.
Well let's look a little closer at the situation. She abused drugs and alcohol constantly in her career. Denied help constantly, making her situation worse.Â
Abusing drugs and alcohol will make you lose your mind people.
Her boyfriend is shot on the same porch suspiciously a month earlier. Suicide? They have not confirmed.
Her kids are taken away because they are not being cared for as she sleeps all day abusing drugs and alcohol.
After checking out of rehab a few days after her kids are taken, she goes back home, shoots the family dog and then shoots herself in the head.
It is really hard for me to feel sorry for her after getting a better sense for the selfish person she seems to be.
Let me say this again..... Abusing Drugs and Alcohol Will Make You Lose Your Mind.
Wow, thanks Dr. Drew. Tell us more blatantly obvious stuff, you're a real sharpie.
@Release The CrackenJust think about what you are saying for a moment and realize that she may have, just may have, had it just a bit harder in life then you have. Just food for thought.
@Mike Lundberg Your cut and paste remarks come across as being disingenuous - why not come up with an original remark now that you've used that at least 3 times?
@commonHuskyfan Because it is a universal comment I think, but you maybe right.
@Release The Cracken that's a really easy, black and white outlook. Did you know her as a person or just read the tabloids? People don't just drink and do drugs usually because they want to wreck their lives, something drives them to it in the first place and that is usually emotional pain that they are trying to numb and then the whole situation gets out of control once they become addicted.
There have been a lot of soldier and teen suicides lately too. Are you calling them selfish too? Where did you get your "better sense for the selfish person she seems to be" I'd like to read those sources too so I can become more informed.
@nomad @Release The Cracken She chose her path, just like we all do.
@nomad @Release The Cracken Well when you have a mother that abuses rx and alcohol her whole life and slowly becomes mentally unstable because of it, you come talk to me.
Oh by the way - for all the defenders of "people who feel pain we may never know" - she also felt the need to kill her dog, too.
@Throbbinhood I hadn't heard that, but after reading the entire article, I don't doubt it. The last paragraph is particularly disturbing. She was a train wreck waiting to happen. Damn shame.
@Throbbinhood I saw that and my first reaction was how could anyone do that to their dog. But I wasn't in her head. Maybe she believes in an afterlife and that by killing herself and the dog they'd join her (already deceased) boyfriend in it? I don't know.Â
In some ways I feel sorry for the children - not knowing their natural parents in positive and loving ways, and growing up without them.Â
Yet another part of me says now the children can at least have a chance at growing up in a protective loving environment, though they will still, at some point, have to deal with the emotional trauma of losing both parents.
The boys had 2 different fathers. The father of the oldest boy is going to try to get custody of him.
@Jatok So the little one loses not only his mother and father but his brother too? That's really awful.
From listening to the interview with the oldest boys father, the younger boy also has relatives in Florida and what the father would like to do is get both boys back with family so that the two brothers can grow up close together and as brothers.
Pretty fast to rule out homicide. Boyfriend dies a month earlier now she's dead too. I know she had some depression and addiction issues so suicide is high possibility but shouldn't the po po investigate these deaths before ruling suicide?
Does the article state the "po-po" didn't investigate? Are you such a dummy that you think dead gunshot victims are not afforded a cause of death inquiry, or do conspiracy theories make you feel all ooshy inside? Now tell us about a grassy knoll.
These callous comments disgust me. It's that kind of attitude that is derailing our society.Â
I think it's very sad that she died. If you are one of the ones who made a callous comment, be thankful that you haven't experienced the level of pain that would drive a person to do this. Everyone has a breaking point.
You should send some tweets about that.
@nomad Sorry for what I said.
@nomad Offing yourself when you're a parent of two young kids is inexcusable, in my book.
@Scoondog +1.  THANK YOU.
And now she'll go down as a country singer with an even lower level of respect from her fans for choosing to take her life so selfishly and leaving those poor kids behind without any parents. Â
@AdAckbar I have been in that spot and there is only so long you can hold on before you just don't have the strength anymore.  It's not about being selfish, it's about the pain being so overwhelming you can't cope with it anymore. And if you have no one to help you and the pain doesn't stop, you just want it to be over and to find peace. It's so sad to me to see what we've become as a society that the first reaction to something like this is negativity and harsh words instead of sadness and empathy.
I am sad and empathetic toward the family that carries this with them now having to cope and deal with this loss. Â Absolutely. Â I can be nothing, but empathetic, but at the same time what she did was simply the same, but without the em = pathetic.
@nomad @AdAckbar It's also about feeling like you're doing your loved ones and the world a favor by getting out of the way.Â
@AdAckbar Just think about what you are saying for a moment and realize that she may have, just may have, had it just a bit harder in life then you have. Just food for thought.
@Mike Lundberg @AdAckbar yeah poor lady with all that good fortune of being a success and having more than many of us ever get the gifts they are born with and get because they worked for as well. Â
@AdAckbar only to people like you who have no idea what it's like to live with that kind of pain or an understanding of mental illness.
@nomad @AdAckbar Really?  I take meds for depression.  You don't know me.  YOU have no idea.
After trying drugs and slitting her wrist she did the sure fire thing. "Attempted" suicide is a call for help. Real suicide is a bullet in the head.
RIP to her family and two small sons, hopefully someone will be able to be a positive stable influence in their lives.  No matter what her demons were its tragic she is gone.   This gal had talent, its too bad that a life of drugs and alcohol took that talent away.  Â
Another one bites the dust.
@Mike LundbergJust think about what you are saying for a moment and realize that she may have, just may have, had it just a bit harder in life then you have. Just food for thought
@Mike Lundberg feel better for making such a callous comment?
@nomad Sorry for what I said.
@nomad @Mike Lundberg Yes @nomad I am, I am truly sorry for what I said.
@Mike Lundberg @nomad I hope you are being sincere.Â
The lady is goofyer than a pet coon. The guilt of killing her longtime boyfriend was more than she could take. Just sayin.
@TAKEDOWNJust think about what you are saying for a moment and realize that she may have, just may have, had it just a bit harder in life then you have. Just food for thought
Sorry - but her minimal body of work as a country "artist" hardly rose to the level of the kind of coverage she's getting.
@ThrobbinhoodJust think about what you are saying for a moment and realize that she may have, just may have, had it just a bit harder in life then you have. Just food for thought
@Mike Lundberg @Throbbinhood My comment is strictly media related - is not directed in any way to the method in which she conducted herself in life, or how she decided to leave this world.
@Throbbinhood Oh sorry, my bad.