Kellie Pickler at rehearsals for the 43rd Annual ACM Awards Show in Las Vegas. Photo provided by the Academy of Country Music.
Oct. 9, 2008 — The spotlight of fame doesn’t necessarily make life a breeze, and Kellie Pickler knows that firsthand. In fact, problems away from the stage led to depression severe enough that she took medications to battle her mood.
"Everything in my professional life seemed great," she told People magazine. "But in my personal life, I was crumbling."
She broke up with a boyfriend, her father went back to jail, and her birth mother suddenly tried to enter her life again some two decades after she abandoned Kellie. The singer was jolted by all the drama, and anti-depressants didn’t help. In fact, they created other problems, and Kellie dropped them.
Kellie got emotional support from fellow singers Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, and she developed a new relationship with songwriter Kyle Jacobs.
"He makes me feel so good about being me," she said.
In addition, working on her self-titled sophomore album, in which Kellie confronted some of her issues, was good therapy. Now, the CD is debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart. She’s only the sixth country star in history to reach the top with both her first and second projects in the first week of release.
"In these really tough times when people are dealing with the high cost of gas, groceries and a terrible economy, the fact fans went out spent their hard earned dollars on my music means so much to me," Kellie noted.