Mindy McCready, a U.S. country singer who hits included “Guys Do It All the Time,” has died in a suspected suicide, police in Arkansas said today.
Officers were called to McCready’s Heber Springs house after shots were heard. They found the 37-year-old singer dead on the front porch with an “apparent self-inflicted gun wound,” Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office said in an e-mailed release.
In January, the star’s boyfriend David Wilson was also found on the same porch with what appeared to be a self- inflicted shot wound. His death is also being investigated. The record producer was a father to her younger son, who was born last year.
“He didn’t just touch my heart, he touched my soul,” McCready said of Wilson in a television interview this year. She said she wasn’t involved in his death.
McCready arrived in Nashville in 1994 with tapes of her karaoke vocals. “Guys Do It All the Time” was a knowing look at male egos and one of 12 country hits.
Her career was soon overshadowed by headlines about her personal life.
She claimed a long affair with baseball star Roger Clemens, which he denied. She was also romantically linked to actor Dean Cain, hockey player Drake Berehowsky and songwriter Billy McKnight, father of her eldest son. After a violent argument, McKnight was at one stage charged with her attempted murder but the two later had a son together before parting.
She fought a battle for custody of that son who was being cared for by her McCready’s mother in Florida. In 2006 the singer grabbed the child and took him back to Arkansas where she was found hiding in a cupboard with him.
McCready was in trouble with the law for drunk driving and fraudulently trying to obtain painkillers from a pharmacy. She was ordered to undergo rehabilitation and was discharged last week, while her sons stayed in foster care.
The star’s last album was released in 2010 after an eight- year break, titled “I’m Still Here.”
Local television reports said McCready shot her beloved family dog on the porch just before turning the gun on herself.
(Mark Beech writes for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include: Martin Gayford on London exhibitions, Catherine Hickley on art restitution and Jorg von Uthmann on Paris culture.
To contact the writer on the story: Mark Beech in London at mbeech@bloomberg.net or http://twitter.com/home/Mark_Beech.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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Mindy McCready
Frederick Breedon/WireImage/ Getty Images via Bloomberg.
U.S. country star Mindy McCready, who has been found dead in a suspected suicide, is shown performing at the Greased Lightning Daytime Stages during the 2008 CMA Music Festival on June 5, 2008 at Riverfront Park in Nashville, Tennessee.
U.S. country star Mindy McCready, who has been found dead in a suspected suicide, is shown performing at the Greased Lightning Daytime Stages during the 2008 CMA Music Festival on June 5, 2008 at Riverfront Park in Nashville, Tennessee. Source: Frederick Breedon/WireImage/ Getty Images via Bloomberg.
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U.S. country singer Mindy McCready
U.S. country singer Mindy McCready performs at Lincoln Center in 2006 in New York.
U.S. country singer Mindy McCready performs at Lincoln Center in 2006 in New York. Photographer: Brad Barket/Getty Images
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