Today’s Country Music Fact of the Day, We are remembering Mindy McCready. One of the perks of being on the radio is getting to meet artists. It’s something I’ll never take for granted. Over my career in Country Radio, I’ve been able to make some friends with artists that have lasted even to this day!
In the late 90’s I was working in Fort Myers Florida, where I met Mindy McCready. She was born on November 30th, 1975. I was working in Fort Myers right as her first song, “Guys Do It All The Time” came out, which went on to be a number 1 song for Mindy.
Just as Charles Kelly and Dave Haywood from Evans are respected and loved for being from Evans, Mindy was loved the same way by the folks of Fort Myers. They were very proud of her for calling it her hometown. Her career did some amazing things
Mindy’s Career
- Debut Album, Ten Thousand Angels Came Out In 1996
- Sold 2 Million Copies
- 4 top 10 songs including her first & only number 1, Guy’s Do It All The Time
- Nominated For Top New Female Vocalist by the ACM in 1997
- Mindy would release a total of 5 albums in her career
With Success Comes The Fame And Trouble
She was engaged to Actor Dean Cain for a year. In 2003, she began dating aspiring singer William Patrick “Billy” McKnight. That’s where a lot of her problems began.
May 8, 2005, McKnight was arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating and choking her. After reporting to People magazine that she had cut ties with McKnight, McCready was found unconscious in a hotel lobby in Indian Rocks Beach Florida after attempting suicide in July 2005. She was hospitalized for a drug overdose after consuming a large number of undisclosed drugs with alcohol.
The couple got back together and McCready became pregnant. In September 2005, she attempted suicide again by overdosing. In March 2006, McCready gave birth to a son, Zander Ryan McCready.
On December 17, 2008, paramedics were called to her Nashville home after an apparent suicide attempt; they transported her to a hospital after finding wounds on her wrists. On May 25, 2010, McCready was hospitalized in Cape Coral Florida for a possible drug overdose.
In April 2012, McCready gave birth to her second child, a son named Zayne. The child’s father, record producer David Wilson, was found dead on January 13, 2013, at McCready’s home, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On February 17, 2013, McCready’s neighbors called the Sheriff’s Office of Cleburne County Arkansas reporting gunshots. McCready was found dead on her front porch from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the same place where David Wilson, her former boyfriend and the father of her younger son, had fatally shot himself one month prior.
