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Kellie Pickler
Singer

Country singer Kellie Pickler puts her heart into her music, telling stories through her songs of troubled family life, the death of loved ones, and relationship woes. Her honest singing and spirited delivery has appealed to listeners, who hear their own stories reflected in her songs. Pickler got her start in music as a contestant on the "American Idol" TV talent show.

Pickler grew up in North Carolina, where she was steeped in a culture that appreciated country music; she dreamed of one day being a singer herself. Her early life was troubled; her mother abandoned Pickler and her father when the youngster was two, and her father, a convicted felon, was in jail much of the time. She was mainly raised by her paternal grandparents. Pickler told Eileen Finan in People, "My father did a lot of stupid things, but when I lived with him, I never had to do without. … He'd make sure I went to bed with food in my stomach. When he was sober, he was a good person."

Pickler was devastated when her grandmother, whom she called "Mom," died of lung cancer when she was only 15. "She was my best friend," Pickler told Michelle Tauber in People. "The last thing she said to me was, ‘I love you. Be careful.’" Pickler also told Tauber, "After my grandma passed away, my dreams were all I had. I lived to accomplish them."

Pickler's break into music happened when she finished sixth on the 2006 season of the television talent show "American Idol," and followed it up with a tour. At the age of only 20, she signed with Sony BMG Nashville. Pickler's debut album, Small Town Girl, debuted at number one on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart in November of 2006. It was also nominated for a 2007 Country Music Association Award. Hits from the album included "Red High Heels," "I Wonder," and "Things that Never Cross a Man's Mind." Even though none of the songs were radio hits, the album sold nearly one million copies, simply through word-of-mouth and sales to fans of "American Idol."

In 2006 Pickler's father was released from jail, but went back to prison in 2007. Pickler, who had tried to help her father start a new life, was devastated. She told Finan, "I thought, ‘Wow, here we go again.’" In the fall of 2007, Pickler had a stormy breakup from her then-boyfriend, hockey player Jordin Tootoo. This, combined with her disappointment over her father, led to a deep depression.

Pickler was also upset about her mother's long-ago decision to abandon her; she missed having a parent who cared about her and who was interested in her life. She told Finan "I've never come off stage and had my mom or dad say, ‘That was so amazing!’" But, she added, "I accept the things I cannot change: I'll never have a relationship with her or the relationship with my father that I want."

She kept busy with her work, and even put her feelings into a song, "Somebody to Love Me." Soon after, she met Nashville producer Kyle Jacobs, who wrote two more songs with her, and with whom she also began a relationship. She told Finan that he was loving and supportive, and remarked, "I'm happier than I've ever been."

Those two songs, as well as others, went into her next album, Kellie Pickler, released in 2008. Unlike the first album, which was rushed into production during Pickler's Idol tour, this one was given more time and thought. Pickler told Ken Tucker in Billboard that the album was "a lot more ‘me’ because we had to time to make it ‘me.’" Sony BMG Nashville chairman Joe Galante told Tucker, "There's no doubt Kellie has put more of herself in this record. … You get to see many sides of her." Tucker praised the album, calling it "another solid step toward country stardom."

One song on the album that gained a lot of attention was "I Wonder," in which Pickler wonders where her mother is and what it would have been like to grow up with a loving mom. She told Mark Price in the Charlotte Observer, "I wrote every question that I could think of to ask her. It starts off with ‘Sometimes I think about you and I wonder if you're thinking about me.’" She told Price, "I have a mom that is out there that left me. How do you leave your child?"

Pickler won three Country Music Television (CMT) awards in 2008. She won the Breakthrough Video award for "I Wonder," Best Tearjerker Video for the same song, and Performance of the Year for her appearance on the 41st annual Country Music Association Awards in 2007.

Pickler told Ian Spelling of New Jersey's Bergen County Record that even if her fame disappeared tomorrow, that would be okay, because that's not why she writes songs: "If there's only one person that buys your record and your song has changed their life, that's enough. That's just my way of looking at it. I'm not a competitive person. I just love music. I'll write until the day I die."

Selected discography
Small Town Girl, Sony BMG Nashville, 2007.
Kellie Pickler, Sony BMG Nashville, 2008.

Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, November 11, 2006, p. 81; March 10, 2007, p. 46; September 13, 2008, p. 59; October 4, 2008, p. 49.
Charlotte Observer, October 27, 2006, p. NA.
Houston Chronicle, October 19, 2008, p. 5.
People, November 13, 2006, p. 89; October 20, 2008, p. 77.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 24, 2008, p. E1.
Record (Bergen County, NJ), January 18, 2008, p. G12.
Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), July 26, 2007, p. NA.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 6, 2007, p. F3.
World Entertainment News Network, April 15, 2008, p. NA.

Online
Kellie Pickler Official Web site, http://www.kelliepickler.com/ (April 8, 2009).

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