The Mindy McCready
story became more and more complicated - and potentially tragic -
the last week of July. On July 26, the singer's mother, Gail Inge,
told a Florida newspaper that Mindy was being treated in a Tampa-area
hospital after being found unconscious four days earlier at an area
Holiday Inn. McCready's ex-boyfriend, Billy McKnight, who was out
on bond after being charged with attempted murder and aggravated burglary
in Nashville after allegedly breaking into McCready's garage and beating
her and choking her in early May, was traveling with Mindy in Florida
in late July and gave law enforcement authorities there a four-page
suicide note he said McCready had written. McCready, who fired her
Nashville attorney Dennis Timlin on July 25, was facing a variety
of new charges in Arizona. She professes her innocence to these current
charges.
NMG caught up with Mindy McCready on June 8 during
a Music City
Charity Network event at the Rhythm Kitchen.
At the event, she did hits like ~Ten Thousand Angels~ as well as newer
material, singing through tears at time as she spoke honestly with
the fans about what she's been through.
In September,
Mindy is scheduled to tell her story on one of television's most prestigious
stages, the Oprah Winfrey Show. McCready's appearance will be taped
shortly after Labor Day and likely air the last week of September.
The Florida native is a natural performer, but she went through long
spells during which she didn't even want to set foot on stage. With
the exception of one charitable performance in Illinois, the Rhythm
Kitchen gig was her first concert in 18 months.
~To be
a girl and to be loving like I am and sweet like I am, it's hard not
to get taken advantage of, and I was really taken advantage of in
every way, shape, or form in this industry,~ she said after the show
in a conversation inside her tour bus. ~So I just said, `Listen, I'm
tired of this. I don't know if I can do this anymore, I love to sing
more than anything but I didn't even want to sing. I was over it,
I was over it.'~
What she needed was some time off.
~So I stopped and went fishing with my father in Florida,~ the singer
said. ~And lo and behold, a year and a half later I was missing it
so bad that I was willing to go back into the industry that I had
been so upset about and try again, because I really feel that I'm
supposed to be doing what I'm doing, and that people out there were
upset because they missed me doing what it is that I do. It was hurtful
to me that I was not being there for my fans, because I truly do love
them and I do everything for them.~
Country fans, as the
rain-soaked legions who broke all the attendance records at the CMA
Music Festival demonstrated, are the greatest in music. Their loyalty
to artists, even those with severe ups and downs like George Jones
and McCready, is legendary. ~It's a lifetime commitment they make
to loving you, its like a marriage,~ McCready says. ~It's a family
relationship. They might not like your song, but they always love
you. That's so wonderful, its not like that in any other format. I'm
proud to be a Country music singer, I love the camaraderie, and I
love the family environment that the fans create by their loyalty.~
Early in his career, George Jones missed so many concerts because
of drinking that he became known as ~No Show~ Jones. Even Hank Williams
was fired from the Opry for similar reasons. Mindy McCready also has
often been her own worst enemy.
During her early fame
for the wonderful ~Ten Thousand Angels~ and ~Guys Do It All The Time~
singles and videos in 1996, when she was just 21 years old, McCready
made a disparaging remark about the head of her record company, RCA
Label Group / Nashville chairman Joe Galante. Galante is one of the
most brilliant and successful record executives in Nashville history,
and McCready's statements likely spelled the beginning of the end
of her days with the label.
Radio stopped playing her
singles, and by 2000 McCready was on Capitol Nashville. They too eventually
parted company following a management shakeup at the label, and in
recent years McCready - like far too many other Nashville artists,
including Wynonna and Lynn Anderson - made news as much for her occasional
troubles with the law as for her music. During a disastrous weekend
in early May, it all came to a head when McCready was picked up for
DUI and two days later her ex-boyfriend, Billy McKnight, was charged
with attempted murder and aggravated burglary after allegedly attacking
Mindy inside her own garage.
Showing remarkable courage
and heart, McCready was back on stage exactly one month later. Surrounded
by several bodyguards, she signed autographs and met the delighted
fans at the Rhythm Kitchen after her show. It was an unmitigated triumph.
~I belong up there on stage, I really do,~ Mindy said, smiling. ~I
do belong up there. I'm an honest person. I'm very, very honest all
the time, even to a fault I think. When I'm on stage, I'm so completely
vulnerable and open . . . . I actually feel good about being like
that. When I'm on stage, its the only time in my life that I feel
comfortable being vulnerable.~
During these difficult
last years, McCready has grown much closer to her mother, who also
endured an abusive relationship while Mindy was growing up. ~I speak
with my Mother every day, at least 10 times a day,~ McCready says.
~My cell-phone minutes are mostly talk to my Mother, its crazy.~
Was she nervous about climbing back on stage, after performing so
little in recent years?
~I'm always nervous,~ she said,
smiling. ~I care so much, I really do, I care about every show. I
want it all to be perfect, and I care so much that I'm a nervous wreck.
. . I want to care so much that I never get overconfident, and I do,
I really try.~ On this night, Mindy McCready not only tried, she succeeded
with flying colors.
McCready is fighting not only for
her career but for her life. Marla Sitten, her publicist and friend,
told NMG,
~Mindy McCready is the smartest and most talented
woman I've ever worked with, but she can do the dumbest things. She
needs our support and prayers now more than ever.~
