Known more for getting in trouble with men, family, drugs and various other offenses, Mindy McCready, whose biggest hit in 1998 was 'Guys Do It,' a clever song about switching roles with men and the women are the ones out playing pool, watching boxing,etc., while the guys are home waiting for them to call. The writer played me the demo (demonstration tape they play the artist to hear) and I told him he has his first #1 if he can get it to her. He did, and they did.
I met Mindy at the BMI awards in 1998, the year she was flying high, both literally and figuratively. She was engaged to actor Dean McCain at the time who stood at the entrance of BMI looking bored. Mindy, on the other hand, was glowing and as friendly as her Southern roots in Florida.
About 9 months later, she and Dean broke up, and it was not long after that one could see the decline in her eyes.
She had a new, trashy boyfriend, (name withheld not to protect him, but not give him one letter of exposure) and one could see how she was trying to hide her bruises on her face, neck and arms. To make matters worse, she had a child with him. There were flights to Florida to stay with her mom, her son taken away for neglect, and a lot of other misfortunes that I don't want to write about because just one phone call to Music Cares could have changed her life around.
I must digress for a moment, because each year you hear Paul McCartney was Music Cares person of the year last year, and this year it was "The Boss." The thing is, people watching the Grammy Awards haven't a clue as to what it is. Music Cares office is in Nashville, and working out of New York and L.A., too. The organization helps writers, singers,producers and others in the music business when they are down on their luck, up to the tune of three thousand dollars, and it has saved many lives. The names of the artists they help is kept confidential,but the artists who donate a portion of their shows pay for Music Cares by donating a portion of their money from shows. Last year, until the week of the Grammy Awards, I don't think the public heard about it and Bruce Springsteen wasn't announced until early this year. Hundreds of working artists give some of their concert money to Music Cares, and it's important you know about them. Had Mindy gone to them, she might have gotten the help she needed. Forgive me for digressing, but I really wasn't. They could have gotten her to the help she needed.
And it was help she needed. Her boyfriend, father of her second child, committed suicide a couple of weeks ago.That is when Mindy said she lost it and couldn't take the pain. How was one to know she meant it this time? She had tried to kill herself three other times. Someone should have helped.
I guess the only way to prevent these type of tragedies is treat every heart as if it's breaking.
R.I.P. Mindy.
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