• Prepping for Portland

  USA Today - Found Jul. 2, 2009 ... meeting with two record companies -- one of them Sony Nashville, home to Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler.) So come back this weekend...

• Former American Idol Contestant, Kellie Pickler, is Dating Kid Rock

  Associated Content - Found Jun. 28, 2009 Kellie Pickler has struggled with her dumb blonde image since making her musical debut on season five of American Idol. Kellie Pickler... Kid Rock dating American Idol star Kellie Pickler? - Yahoo! India Explore All

  Associated Content

• Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 28-July 4

  Yahoo! Music - Found Jun. 25, 2009 ... is 33. Bassist Mark Stoermer of The Killers is 32. Country singer and former 'American Idol' contestant Kellie Pickler is 23. June 29: Actor... Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 28-July 4 - Boston Globe Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 28-July 4 - San Jose Mercury News Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 28-July 4 - Daily News-Record Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 28-July 4 - Fort Mills Times Explore All

• Jordin, Kellie and Carrie all see sales increases

  USA Today - Found Jun. 24, 2009 All I Ever Wanted (9,000, -9 percent, 621,000/1,000 digital, -19 percent, 134,000) Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler (8,000, +14 percent, 249...

• Summer Celebration review: Kellie Pickler

  Muskegon Chronicle - Found Jun. 30, 2009 Who: Kellie Pickler. Attendance: 13,500. Opening acts: Jake Owen and Keith Anderson. Quote: 'It all goes downhill from here,' Kellie Pickler...

• Side Stage Snapshots: July 3

  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Found 10 hours ago ... brunets (Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Shania Twain), country music has lately experienced an influx of blonds (Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler).

• Quoting the Godfather of Soul without reservation

  Toccoa Record - Found Jul. 2, 2009 ... mayor, I feel pretty good about padding around my house in sock feet and white boxers listening to Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift playing on... S.C. governor released from book contract - MSNBC When Attacks Go Too Far: Mark Sanford as Biblical Fundamentalist - US News Sanford Didn?t Improperly Use Public Funds, Official Says - New York Times Sanford didn't use public money improperly - CNN Explore All

  IVillage

• Texas Music Legend to Perform Traditional Tune at The Dell Diamond ...

  OurSports Central - Found Jul. 1, 2009 Walker, who is performing Saturday at The Dell Diamond along with Kellie Pickler in the July 4th Freedom Fest benefiting the Children of...

• Grapevine: Carey going after Eminem in new video?

  Detroit News - Found Jun. 30, 2009 Rock and Pickler: Rockler? Are Kid Rock and Kellie Pickler an item? Mariah Carey dresses as Eminem in latest video - Houston Chronicle Mariah fires back at Eminem - Metro.co.uk Mariah Carey Hits Back At Eminem - MaleFirst Mens Magazine Mariah Carey 'a man' in new vid - Metro.co.uk Explore All

  EURweb

• Jordin Sparks, Kelly Clarkson have the week's top Idol sellers

  USA Today - Found Jul. 1, 2009 135,000 digital total) Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (7,000, -26 percent, 2.91 million) Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler (6,000, -24 percent... Explore All

  Desert Entertainer

Kellie Pickler
Background information
Birth name	Kellie Dawn Pickler
Born	June 28, 1986 (1986-06-28) (age 23)
Origin	Albemarle, North Carolina, U.S.
Genre(s)	Country pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2006–present
Label(s)	BNA/19 Recordings Ltd
Associated acts	Catherine Britt Taylor Swift Carrie Underwood
Website	Official Kellie Pickler Site

Kellie Dawn Pickler (born June 28, 1986) is an American country music artist and television personality. She gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of the FOX reality show American Idol, eventually finishing in sixth place. In 2006, she signed to BNA Records as a recording artist, releasing her debut album, Small Town Girl, late that year. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "Red High Heels" at #15, "I Wonder" at #14, and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind" at #16. The first single from her self-titled second album is "Don't You Know You're Beautiful". It was released in mid-2008 and reached the Top 25. The second single from her self-titled album is "Best Days of Your Life" which she co-wrote with Taylor Swift.

Early life

Pickler was born at Stanly Memorial Hospital in Albemarle, North Carolina, to Cynthia Morton and Clyde "Bo" Raymond Pickler, Jr. When Pickler was two, Cynthia left Kellie, and her father, Clyde, has been in and out of jail her whole life.Therefore she lived with her grandparents. The major influences in her life are her grandfather,(retired) electrician Clyde Raymond Pickler, Sr., and grandmother Faye Pickler. She was raised in Palestine, a small town near Albemarle.¹ She has a half brother named Eric, a half sister, Courtney, and a half brother, Michael, however, she has never met Michael.² After her grandmother's death from lung cancer in January 2002,³ she continued to reside with her grandfather and her younger sibling Eric until she became a contestant on Idol. Pickler graduated in 2004 from North Stanly High School in New London, North Carolina. She was a cheerleader and beauty queen. She sang "On the Side of Angels" by LeAnn Rimes at her high school graduation.

She worked as a waitress at a Sonic Drive In franchise and, in 2005, she made an appearance on WSOC-TV's Gimme the Mike! Charlotte contest. She finished in second place. She participated in the Miss America circuit and won the "Miss Stanly County" pageant at age 17 and subsequently competed for Miss North Carolina 2004. She dropped out and later focused on paralegal studies.⁴

American Idol

The 19-year-old Pickler auditioned for American Idol in the fall of 2005 in Greensboro, North Carolina. She sang both Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing". The judges sent her to Hollywood. Pickler advanced through the semi-final rounds in February. On March 9, she reached the Top 12.

Pickler was among one of judge Simon Cowell's favorites. He once predicted Pickler would be in the final three, and said he preferred her over the previous season's winner, Carrie Underwood.⁵ Recognized for her "quirky" personality and Southern charm, Pickler gained attention on the show by saying that she had hardly ever performed before real audiences, and by mispronouncing words.⁶ She was compared to Jessica Simpson in a March 27 story in US Weekly magazine entitled "Kellie: The Next Jessica Simpson", due to her "sweet Southern style and ditzy demeanor". Pickler has stated several times that she was not heavily exposed to modern pop culture.

Performances and results (during voting weeks)

Post-Idol career

Kellie Pickler and members of her band Joshua Henson, left, and Ryan Ochsner perform for U.S. service members during the first stop of the 2008 USO Holiday Tour on Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Dec. 16, 2008.

After her elimination, she appeared in numerous shows promoting the TV show and performed the song "Walkin' After Midnight" in some of her appearances.

On May 6, 2006, she returned to Albemarle, North Carolina, for a parade and a reunion with her father. She received a key to the city from the mayor of Albemarle. The mayor also proclaimed the day as "Kellie Pickler Day." Pickler also received numerous awards from local and statewide government officials praising her accomplishments as a contestant on the American Idol television show.⁷

Pickler pursued her recording aspirations in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly thereafter. On July 17, 2006, she signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/BNA Records. She later announced it herself on The View. She was part of the American Idol Pop Tarts tour ensemble, performing for three months in various cities. During that period, Pickler worked on her album in collaboration with top industry experts in different cities wherever the tour took her.⁸

2006–2007: Small Town Girl

Her first single, "Red High Heels", debuted on September 13, 2006, and its music video was officially released on October 20, 2006. It reached #1 on the GAC Top 20 Countdown on February 9 and received a nomination for the CMT Video Awards for "Best Breakthrough Artist Video".⁹¹⁰

Her debut album, Small Town Girl, released on October 31, 2006, topped Billboard's Top Country Albums and landed at #9 on Billboard Top 200 selling over 79,000 copies in its first week. Its sales made her the best selling new country solo artist of 2006. The album includes five songs that Pickler co-wrote with songwriters Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo and Karyn Rochelle.¹¹¹²¹³

On January 18, 2007, Pickler co-hosted The View and was presented with a gold record by Rosie O'Donnell, certifying that her album has gone gold. She also performed her second single "I Wonder", which is a personal song about her absent relationship with her mother, Cynthia Morton. It was the first performance of the song on national TV.¹⁴¹⁵

Pickler was nominated for "Top New Female Vocalist" for the 42nd Academy of Country Music Awards.¹⁶

She was also part of Brad Paisley's "Bonfires & Amplifiers" concert tour from April 2007 through October as one of the opening acts. The tour was booked in at least 37 cities in the U.S. including a couple of stops in Canada.¹⁷¹⁸

Pickler appeared in country music artist Brad Paisley's music video "Online" in 2007.¹⁹

On September 2007, Pickler released a version of "Santa Baby" for a Christmas country compilation. A month later, at the ASCAP Awards in Nashville, Pickler received a songwriter award for co-writing her debut single "Red High Heels". She performed her second single, "I Wonder", at the 2007 CMA Awards. During the performance, she was visibly overcome with emotion and struggled to even finish the song before bursting into tears. The performance received a standing ovation. She was also nominated for the Horizon Award. The performance led her to receive 3 CMT awards the following April.

In November, 2007, Pickler appeared on a Celebrity Edition of the quiz show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, playing for the charities of her choice (American Red Cross and the AARP's Grandparenting Program).²⁰ Worth a guaranteed $25,000, she was asked, "Budapest is the capital of what European country?". She replied, "This might be a stupid question… I thought Europe was a country?". She voiced that it might be a place where people spoke French, and then was repeatedly confused as to whether France really was a country or not. When told the answer was Hungary, she did not believe the host. She said, "Hungry sic? That's a country? I've heard of Turkey, but Hungry? I've never heard of it".²¹ The video has become a YouTube hit.²²

While on her first USO concert tour in Iraq, Pickler met a few people from Budapest, Hungary, who presented her with a flag of their country.²³²⁴

2008–present: Kellie Pickler

Kellie Pickler sings to service members during a USO show at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq, December 19, 2008.

Following the release of the third single ("Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind") from her debut album, Pickler returned to the studio to work on her sophomore album. On May 8, 2008, her official website announced that she would sing the first single from the new album, "Don't You Know You're Beautiful" at the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 18, 2008. Pickler has since stated: "I’m so excited to be performing on the show and doubly so, to be debuting the new single. It’s such a great song, with a positive message and it’s different than any other song I’ve recorded before." Her new single debuted on country music radio stations in June,²⁵

Her second album, self-titled Kellie Pickler, was released on September 30, 2008,²⁶ and debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 chart, her second consecutive top ten album, and her second consecutive number one on the Top Country Albums chart.²⁷

On November 12, 2008, she performed "Best Days of Your Life", her second single off her sophomore album in the CMA Awards. She was also nominated for "Best New Artist", but the award went to Lady Antebellum.

On December 31, 2008, Pickler was a correspondent in New York's Times Square for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC.

Pickler is the opening act for Taylor Swift's tour Fearless, which started April 23, 2009.²⁸ On June 28, 2009 she will begin her own 41-date tour in support of her sophomore album, playing various large arenas across America.²⁹

Personal life

Pickler's father, whom she describes as an alcoholic and drug addict, recently served a three-year, nine-month prison sentence at Florida State Prison for aggravated assault and battery stemming from a 2003 stabbing incident.³⁰ He was released on May 6, 2006, a week after her elimination from Idol.

On February 26, 2007, she met her personal 'idol' and strongest influence, the country music superstar Dolly Parton. The surprise was arranged by Sony BMG Nashville chairman Joe Galante.³¹

In 2007, Pickler was in a relationship with Nashville Predators player Jordin Tootoo and visited his family in Nunavut, Canada.³²³³ Later that year, the two broke up.³⁴

Pickler's best friend has been Summer Miller, who Pickler met when they were teen pageant hopefuls.³⁵ Pickler is close friends with American Idol fourth season winner Carrie Underwood and country pop singer Taylor Swift, the latter of whom co-wrote Pickler's second single "Best Days of Your Life" from her album Kellie Pickler,³⁶ and with her American Idol roommate Katharine McPhee, for whom she was a bridesmaid at McPhee's 2008 wedding.³⁷

In June 2008, she joined close friend Carrie Underwood, a long-time vegetarian, in giving up eating meat. Pickler says she first decided to go vegetarian for health reasons, but a TV ad that vegetarian Pamela Anderson did for animal rights group PETA piqued her curiosity. "One night I couldn't sleep and I was up and just Googling random stuff and I'm like, 'Hmmm, PETA.' I saw all the videos and I just thought it was horrible. It's animal cruelty. A lot of it has to do with knowing what happens to the animals and it really bothered me and so I will not eat meat."³⁸ In May 2009, it was announced that Pickler was nominated and won the title of "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" by PETA.³⁹

Pickler has stated that she is a fan of NASCAR. She performed at the Orbitz 300, the season-opener of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Season.⁴⁰ In 2008, she performed at the Food Lion Speed Street NASCAR 600 Festival, a weekend-long event leading up to the 2008 Coca-Cola 600.⁴¹

Pickler is dating Nashville song writer Kyle Jacobs,⁴² who also co-wrote two songs of her second album: "One Last Time" and "Going Out in Style".

Philanthropy

Kellie Pickler performs at the USO Holiday show at Kandahar Air Field (December 2008)

Pickler actively supports St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where she helps raise funds and gives kids special visits. She also participates in charitable events to help raise funds for various organizations. She performed live to help raise funds for the "N. C. Children's PROMISE" to benefit the Children's Hospital in Nov. 12, 2006,⁴³ performed live to help refurbish the Hurricane Katrina damaged NFL Youth Education Towns Boys & Girls Club of New Orleans on December 16, 2006,⁴³ visited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on January 12, 2007,⁴³ and visited Pennington Elementary School in February 1, 2007.⁴³ “When you’re able to give back to your communities and organizations like St. Jude, it’s a great thing,” Pickler said. “It’s been a great experience, and I encourage anyone and everyone to help.”⁴³

Pickler was part of a Country and Western artist studded online auction for charity by Mario Magro: Kiss for a Cause Foundation Celebrity Auction held June 15–25, 2007, in support of orphaned and abandoned children. The event auctioned off celebrity lip prints and signature pressed on the inside of Mario Magro Crystal Le Coop handbags at the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.⁴³

She has participated in two USO tours. The first, in late 2007 and early 2008, took her to Iraq;²³⁴³ the second, in December 2008, included stops in Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and England.⁴⁴

Discography

Albums

• 2006: Small Town Girl
• 2008: Kellie Pickler

Singles

• 2006: "Red High Heels"
• 2007: "I Wonder"
• 2007: "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind"
• 2008: "Don't You Know You're Beautiful"
• 2008: "Best Days of Your Life"

Awards/Nominations

TV appearances, performances, and other events

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kellie Pickler

• Official website
• Kellie Pickler at the Internet Movie Database
• Kellie Pickler at American Idol