Kellie Pickler

A Rocky Start

When Pickler is only two, her mother, Cynthia, flees the alleged physical abuse of her husband, Clyde. Cynthia leaves Pickler with paternal grandparents – Clyde Sr. and Faye Pickler – who raise her. "I've been singing since I was a little girl‚" Pickler says. "My grandma had a collection of children's musical books‚ and we used to sing together all the time." While Pickler's father struggles with alcohol and drug addiction and serves a succession of prison stints, Cynthia is convicted for prescription forgery and charged with writing bad checks.

Eyes on the Prize

During high school, Pickler juggles her role as a varsity cheerleader with her job as a roller-skating waitress at Sonic. At 17, she wins the 2004 Miss Stanly County contest and advances to the Miss Carolina pageant, where she is eliminated. However, as she tells the Memphis' Commercial Appeal, "I really am not a beauty queen. I'm the biggest slob. All I could think about was 'I want to win the talent portion.'"

January 17

Pick Pickler!

With her loveable babe-in-the-woods persona and powerful country pipes, Pickler cracks Idol's Top 10. But some skeptics feel Pickler's ditzy antics – blundering the pronunciation of "salmon" and admitting she's never heard of calamari – are a shrewdly calculated act. "I never think about what I say before I say it, and that always comes back to bite me in the ass," she tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I don't know how to be anything but myself."

March

Growing Curiosity

Returning to Idol, Pickler performs her new single, "I Wonder." But it's her newly voluptuous figure that strikes a chord with fans, sparking rumors of a breast augmentation. In a later appearance on Idol, Ryan Seacrest makes an obvious reference to the rumors quipping, "You've grown in so many ways." Pickler declines to comment, telling WCNC-TV, "Your real friends are gonna to love you no matter what you look like, whether you're a negative A cup or a triple D."

November

Pickler Breaks Down

Pickler performs "I Wonder" at the Country Music Association Awards – breaking down in tears toward the end. "This song...has been kind of like therapy for me," Pickler says on Good Morning America. "[Also] I think it's really helped a lot of other people who might be going through similar circumstances." In 2008, her tearjerker performance wins her a CMT Award for Performance of the Year.