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Boyfriend blamed for singer's problems

By ALEX LEARY
Published July 28, 2005

Country singer Mindy McCready sees the recent turbulence in her career, including a beating she took from her boyfriend in May and last week's overdose at an Indian Rocks Beach hotel, as divine intervention.

"I think God's been trying to get my attention and telling me I'm supposed to be out there singing and entertaining," she said Wednesday, a day after being released from Sun Coast Hospital in Largo.

"I just want to get back to being the regular Mindy McCready."

But the tabloid twists keep coming.

McCready's mother issued a statement Wednesday saying her daughter was lured to Florida by the former boyfriend, William McKnight, and that she tried to kill herself after he "verbally berated" her and allegedly said he would destroy her career.

The family is "afraid for Mindy's life because she is now back with McKnight, under his control and they cannot contact her," the statement read.

"None of that reflects my opinion," the 29-year-old singer said after a Times reporter read her the statement. "I love Billy very much. He beat me up badly and my family's upset about it. They don't want us to reconcile."

McCready said she willingly flew to Florida to meet McKnight, 39. After they argued - she would not discuss details - and she began to drink wine and then took some pills. She said she does not remember calling her mother and reading a suicide note.

"She's not thinking straight," Gayle Inge said from her home in Fort Myers. She visited her daughter at the hospital and said the first words she uttered were "Billy said terrible things to me."

McKnight faces charges in Nashville of attempted criminal homicide and aggravated burglary after the beating at McCready's home in May.

The singer, whose debut in 1996 produced the No. 1 hit Guys Do It All The Time, has gone on television to talk about domestic violence and said she still plans a September appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She said she'll return to Nashville to continue work on her seventh album. (On Friday, she is scheduled for arraignment in Arizona on several charges, including fraud. She said she was the victim of a con man.)

As for McKnight, McCready said he's taken responsibility for the beating, but said the charges are overstated. "He was at no time trying to murder me," she said.

McKnight has just finished his own CD, self-titled, on which the two share a duet. It's called Sweeter.

"In the first verse, I tell him it was meant to be," McCready said.

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 01:20:40]