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McCREADY, Mindy

(b Malinda Gayle McCready, 30 November 1975, Fort Myers FL; d 17 February 2013, Heber Springs AR, a suicide) A Nashville-based beauty who brought youthful, gritty sophistication to country music. She grew up listening mainly to Christian music and sang in church; during high school got hooked on country and started performing in karaoke bars. Without ever having played a live gig she moved to Nashville when she was 18, promising her mother (her parents were divorced) that if she hadn't got a deal within a year, she would return home and go to college. She met producer Norro Wilson and within a week was singing demos and dating songwriter and producer David Malloy, who produced a demo that landed her an RCA contract 51 weeks after the move to Nashville. Less than two years after the move she had a no. 1 country hit with 'Guys Do It All The Time' (it also made the Hot 100 pop chart) from her debut album Ten Thousand Angels; the title track also made the country chart and the album eventually sold over two million copies. If I Don't Stay The Night '97 was expected to do just as well. Her trendy bare midriff, belly-button ring and sexy poses appealed to a younger audience, while her tear-stained delivery owed much to Tammy Wynette.

She had a total of 12 country chart singles, but her demons had started to close in. She suffered from depression and substance abuse; her third album, I'm Not So Tough '99 slipped in the charts and she left the BNA label; Mindy McReady 2002 came out on Capitol. in the 21st century she was charged with fraudulently obtaining painkillers and drunken driving, and served brief jail sentences for parole violations. She had a son with country singer Billy McKnight, who was arrested in 2005 and charged with attempted murder after police said he had beaten and choked her. In 2009 she appeared on the 'reality' series Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew (with McReady's suicide five of Dr. Drew's graduates had now died). Her last album in 2010 was I'm Still Here on Iconic. She had another son with producer David Wilson, who died an apparent suicide in their home in January 2013. Before she shot herself the next month she shot Wilson's dog.