Pickler, an electrician, and listening to the music of Hank Williams Sr. The two would often sing Williams’ hit “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It.” At home, she would sit with her grandmother on the porch swing and sing songs from the books the two would read. “I always wanted to do what Dolly, Loretta and Tammy did,” she says. “That is why I am so passionate. I know what I like and country music is what I like.” Pickler’s life was an open book on “American Idol.” Her story was chronicled as she began a journey that took her to sixth place on the show’s fifth season. Her naivety endeared her to audiences. It was the first time Pickler had been to Hollywood and it was a culture shock. “I was 19 and I was green,” she says, looking back on the experience. “I am very street smart. My dad taught me how to survive and make something from nothing but I didn’t have worldly experience. I didn’t know anything out of my small town.” Playing off of that fish-out-of-water premise, the show’s producers often singled Pickler out for segments outside of the show’s normal competition. “I experienced so many things for the first time on camera,” she says. “People thought I was a complete dumbass, but if you came from where I came from, you would act the same way.” On one show Pickler was introduced to the food of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. “They told me they were going to bring out food and we were going to have a tasting. All I knew is that I was going to eat a bunch of [stuff] I had never eaten before,” she says, explaining that she didn’t filter her reactions on the show. “I said the first thing that came to my head.” Albeit stressful, Pickler had fun on the
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show. “Anything was better than what I had done before,” she says. “I was miserable [before]. I hated my life.” Songwriting allowed her to create her own world where nothing else mattered. “I
My husband calls me a gypsy redneck and I take that as a compliment. You have to be built for [being on the road all the time]. Not everyone can do that. Kellie Pickler
could escape from whatever place, situation or problem by humming and singing my own melodies and making up words,” she says. Her teenage boyfriend didn’t share the same passion for her songwriting. When she tried to sing him a song she had been writing, he laughed. Hurt by his reaction, she took the paper and tossed it in the trash. “I was so upset,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to
write any more.” Her boyfriend suggested she put her fantasy world behind her and get back to reality. “I was so crushed,” she says. “I needed somebody to believe in me.” She later understood the flaws in that type of thinking when it became clear that she couldn’t depend on others to make her happy. “As long as you believe in you that is all that matters,” she says. “You have to create your own joy and be your own best friend.” Pickler’s writing talents flourished with the help of husband-and-wife songwriters Chris Lindsey and Aimee Mayo, who have written hits for everyone from Lonestar and Martina McBride to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. “They helped me start finding myself as a songwriter,” Pickler says, adding that she also has worked with songwriters Karen Rochelle and Leslie Satcher. “I’ve met some incredible songwriters. They have the same passion I have and that is music.” Pickler co-wrote six of the 11 songs of “100 Proof,” including “Mother’s Day,” written with her husband, songwriter Kyle Jacobs, whom she married on New Year’s Day 2011. “We wrote ‘Mother’s Day’ on Mother’s Day,” she says. The soulful song examines the mother/daughter relationship and wrestles with the feelings Pickler had growing up without her mother at her side. Writing the song brought her closure. “Those in similar situations may find closure too,” she says, adding that she really didn’t want anyone to hear that song or “The Letter,” an emotional note to her father. “I had no intentions of recording them and lo and behold they found their way on the record.” Grammy Award-winning engineer and producer Luke Wooten teamed with noted publisher and producer Frank Liddell to pro-
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