Mindy McCready's personal demons overshadowed early success

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><br /><div class="storyBlogByline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="source" style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">CBS/AP<span style="border: 0px; color: #c4c4c4; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 6px 0px 8px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span> </span><span class="time" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">February 18, 2013, 9:01 AM</span></div><h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 3.3em; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 13px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Mindy McCready's personal demons overshadowed early success</h1><div class="storyMediaBox" id="storyMediaBox" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="image620 " style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 350px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"><img alt="In this undated file photo, country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn." src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/18/04Mindy_620x350.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;" /></div><div class="imgText" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 0.8em; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In this undated file photo, country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn. <span class="greySplitter" style="border: 0px; color: #c4c4c4; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span> <span class="creditImg" style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">AP PHOTO/MARK HUMPHREY, FILE</span></div></div><div id="inlineSocialBarTopPlaceholder" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="shareBar inline-sharebar" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 0.8em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"><span style="font-size: 0.7em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 900; letter-spacing: 0.07em; line-height: 1.6em; text-transform: uppercase;">hEBER SPRINGS, ARK.</span></div><div class="storyText" style="background-color: white; background-image: url(http://asset3.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tron/overlays/bkg-highlight-620.png) !important; background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-top-color: rgb(232, 232, 232); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps there was one heartbreak too many for Mindy McCready.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The former country star apparently took her own life Sunday afternoon 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, the mother of two young sons.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Her death ends a series of tumultuous public events that marked much of the singer's adult life. David Wilson -- the singer's boyfriend and father of her 10-month-old son -- was believed to have killed himself last month. McCready said in an tearful interview on Jan. 29, "He didn't just touch my heart. He touched my soul. He was my soul mate."</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McCready's body was found on the same porch where Wilson died.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><ul class="arrows gray" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -15px -911px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57569832/country-crooner-mindy-mccready-dies-at-37/" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Country crooner Mindy McCready dies at 37</a></li><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -15px -911px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505270_162-57569845/mindy-mccready-died-on-same-porch-as-soul-mate/" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mindy McCready died on same porch as "soul mate"</a></li><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -15px -911px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57569856/mindy-mccready-stars-mourn-country-singer-on-twitter/" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stars mourn country singer Mindy McCready on Twitter</a></li></ul><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I think it obviously speaks on the pain that she was feeling, that, for whatever reason, she chose to go to the same location and do the same thing that he did," said Shane Tallant, a friend of McCready's.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a June 2010 interview with CBS News, McCready addressed reports she had attempted to commit suicide multiple times.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><a data-assetid="50141262" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50141262n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="storyEmbed" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 4px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; zoom: 1;"><figure class="video" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px -32px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><img class="image220" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/18/81495143_640x480_220x157.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 140px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;" /></figure><div class="meta" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; z-index: 11;">Play <span style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">VIDEO</span></div><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;">Mindy McCready, dead from apparent suicide</h3></div></a><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I was never in a state in which I was conscious and with it and said, 'Oh I want to die,'" she said then.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In an interview that same year with the Associated Press, McCready smiled wryly while talking about the string of issues she'd dealt with over the last half-decade.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"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."</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This time it seems the whirlwind overwhelmed McCready.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Like so many times before, McCready showed a little toughness in the midst of a personal storm following Wilson's death, 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.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Oh, my God," the "Today" transcript reads. "No. Oh, my God. No. He was my life. We were each other`s life."</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><a data-assetid="10003093" data-assettypeid="49" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-207_162-10003093-1.html" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="storyEmbed" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 4px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; zoom: 1;"><figure class="gallery" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px -32px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><img class="image220" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/18/05Mindy_2_220x157.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 140px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;" /></figure><div class="meta" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; z-index: 11;">25 <span style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">PHOTOS</span></div><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;">Mindy McCready: 1975-2013</h3></div></a><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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 was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It's not clear where her sons, 6-year-old Zander and infant Zayne, were Sunday.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A deputy stationed outside McCready's home Sunday night referred questions to the Cleburne County sheriff, who was unavailable. Yellow crime-scene tape cordoned off the front yard and a dark-colored pickup truck sat in the driveway.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">News of McCready's death spread quickly Sunday night on Twitter, with major country stars paying their respects to the onetime Nashville darling.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Too much tragedy to overcome. R.I.P Mindy McCready," wrote Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Carrie Underwood added: "I grew up listening to Mindy McCready ... so sad for her family tonight. Many prayers are going out to them..."</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"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.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond that, though, she's mostly remembered for a string of dramatic moments as she spent the next 15 years chasing another huge hit. Her problems included a custody battle with her mother over one of her sons, arrests, overdoses and discord in her love life.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She 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 denied the relationship. A decade earlier she was engaged to actor Dean Cain, but the two never married.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She also had a turbulent relationship with Billy McKnight, a country singer who is the father of her oldest son. McKnight was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted murder after authorities say he beat and choked her.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">During this period she also pleaded guilty to obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy and got probation. She violated the probation with a drunken driving arrest in May 2005, a few days before McKnight was arrested. And in July 2007, she was arrested in her hometown of Fort Myers, Fla., on misdemeanor charges of scratching her mother, Gayle Inge, on the face during a scuffle and resisting sheriff's deputies.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Less than a year later, McCready was arrested and charged with violating her probation by falsifying her community service records relating to the 2004 drug charge. A month later, she entered an extended care facility for undisclosed treatment, and followed that with a 60-day jail sentence. Inge took custody of Zander.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There were at least three suicide attempts between July 2005 and December 2008.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She tried to get help in an unusual way, joining the cast of "Celebrity Rehab 3" with Dr. Drew Pinsky. McCready came off as a sympathetic figure during the show's run. Pinsky called her an "angel" and in an interview in 2010 said it appeared McCready was doing "rather well."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pinsky helped treat McCready for love addiction on the show and said he'd referred her to professionals who could continue to help her afterward.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"A love addict basically is somebody that really didn't have a good model for intimacy in their childhood, often times traumatized in one way or another, thereby intimacy becomes a risk place, becomes an intolerable place," Pinsky said. "And so what they tend to do is attach themselves to idealized, bigger than life, unavailable others, specifically go after some public figure that's married or go after some rock star who is himself a sex addict and not interested in a relationship, and then idealize that person and actively pursue them to the point of obsession."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McCready suffered a seizure in one of the show's scarier moments. Tests showed she has suffered brain damage, something she attributed to her abusive relationship with McKnight.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the months after her stint, McCready said she found some peace, telling The Associated Press in early 2010 that she hoped to get her career restarted, write a book about her experiences and begin production on a reality show with her brothers. She'd just met Wilson and talked openly about their relationship, although the producer and musician declined to speak on the record.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"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."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At the time, Pinsky thought the relationship was on the right track: "She's an easy person to like and to care about and we hope she does well," Pinsky said. "So far so good as far as I can tell."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McCready said her main goal in 2010 was to pull her family back together: "I would like my son back with me and for my brothers and I and he to be able to go and do this (TV reality show), and I think after that I will be a pretty happy girl."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The new album debuted at No. 71 and failed to gain radio airplay. McCready's plans never materialized and she soon was in legal trouble again, this time fighting for custody.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">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.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She and Wilson had their son in April 2012.</div></div><br /><br /></div>

Mindy McCready Mindy McCready's personal demons overshadowed early success

CBS/AP /   February 18, 2013, 9:01 AM Mindy McCready's personal demons overshadowed early success In this undated file photo, country si...

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