40 Fun Facts About Kellie Pickler

Which fellow country singer co-wrote Kellie Pickler's biggest country hit and sang backing vocals on the recording?

Taylor Swift suggested writing the song after Pickler told her about a cheating boyfriend while the two friends were opening acts on the same tour.

On a 2007 celebrity quiz show, Kellie Pickler was famously stumped when asked which country has Budapest as its capital?

Hungary was the answer, which Pickler copied from one of the show's young classmates after wondering aloud whether Europe was a country.

Which professional dancer partnered Kellie Pickler to victory on the sixteenth season of Dancing with the Stars in 2013?

Derek Hough took the title with Pickler after a freestyle that scored a perfect 30, and he later danced with her in one of her music videos.

Kellie Pickler shaved her head in 2012 in solidarity with a childhood best friend who was facing which illness?

Breast cancer struck her friend Summer Miller at 35, and the pair had their heads shaved together in Nashville just before Miller began chemotherapy.

Which song was Kellie Pickler's debut single, released in 2006 several weeks before her first album?

Red High Heels took its title from Pickler's love of collecting shoes and went on to become her signature song.

Kellie Pickler's talk show ended in 2019 as stations made room for a new daytime show from which American Idol winner?

Kelly Clarkson's new show, along with Tamron Hall's, claimed the major-market time slots, which would have pushed Pickler & Ben into late-night hours.

Which Disney Channel star finished as runner-up to Kellie Pickler on Dancing with the Stars in 2013?

Zendaya danced with Valentin Chmerkovskiy and finished one place ahead of Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones.

Which Kellie Pickler ballad about her absent mother moved her to tears on stage at the 2007 CMA Awards?

I Wonder earned a standing ovation that night, and the tearful performance went on to win her three awards the following spring.

Who raised Kellie Pickler to adulthood after a court ended her mother's two years of custody?

Her grandparents, Clyde and Faye Pickler, won custody back in court and raised her while her father spent stretches of her childhood in prison.

Which American Idol alum was the only one to top the country albums chart before Kellie Pickler did in 2006?

Carrie Underwood was also the previous season's winner whom judge Simon Cowell said he liked less than Pickler.

In what place did Kellie Pickler finish on the fifth season of American Idol in 2006?

Sixth place came in love-songs week, even though judge Simon Cowell had predicted she would reach the final three.

What is the title of Kellie Pickler's debut album, which topped the country chart and went gold within three months?

Small Town Girl shares its name with one of five songs on the record that Pickler co-wrote, and it was certified gold in January 2007.

Which Nashville songwriter did Kellie Pickler marry on a private Caribbean island on New Year's Day 2011?

Kyle Jacobs proposed on a beach at sunset in 2010, and the couple scrapped plans for an elaborate wedding and eloped instead.

Which Kellie Pickler single, her first top-ten country hit, was inspired by catching a boyfriend cheating?

Best Days of Your Life spent nearly 40 weeks climbing the country chart and passed a million downloads to earn a platinum certification.

Kellie Pickler sang Walkin' After Midnight, a signature hit for which country legend, on American Idol's 1950s night?

Patsy Cline's hit stayed with Pickler, who kept performing it on television after her elimination and recorded it for the season's cast album.

Kellie Pickler starred in two Hallmark movies, a Christmas tale and a wedding sequel, named for which Memphis landmark?

Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, lent its name to both films, in which Pickler played a character named Laurel.

Kellie Pickler appeared in the 2007 music video for Online, a hit by which country star she opened for that year?

Brad Paisley took Pickler on his Bonfires & Amplifiers tour, and the Online video was directed by Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander.

Kellie Pickler has toured Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait on behalf of which organization?

The USO has sent Pickler on three overseas tours, and she later won $25,000 for it on Celebrity Family Feud.

On which daytime talk show did Rosie O'Donnell present guest co-host Kellie Pickler with a gold record in January 2007?

The View was also where Pickler had announced her record deal, and that day she gave her ballad about her mother its first national TV performance.

Which lead single from Kellie Pickler's third album has a video based on her real relationship with her jailed father?

Tough was written by Leslie Satcher and leans on fiddle, steel guitar and even spoons for a neo-traditional sound.

Which Kellie Pickler single has a 1940s-themed video, an era she said celebrated the female figure?

Makin' Me Fall in Love Again was a last-minute addition to her second album, squeezed in just before the record was sent off for mastering.

Which magazine named Kellie Pickler's 100 Proof one of the five best country albums of 2012?

Rolling Stone called Pickler an unlikely trad-country heroine and said the record might be the best traditionalist album of the year.

Which future country superstar co-wrote Stop Cheatin' on Me and sang backing vocals on Kellie Pickler's third album?

Chris Stapleton returned on Pickler's next album as well, singing background vocals once more and co-writing the track Ring for Sale.

Which country legend is named in the title of the opening track on Kellie Pickler's third album?

Tammy Wynette is name-checked in Where's Tammy Wynette, co-written by Leslie Satcher, who also wrote or co-wrote four other songs on the album.

Which country legend recorded Someone Somewhere Tonight in 2006, years before Kellie Pickler released it as a single?

Kenny Rogers cut it for his album Water & Bridges, and Pickler later called it her favorite song she had ever released to country radio.

Kellie Pickler covered Don't Close Your Eyes, a 1988 number-one hit for which country singer, as a bonus track?

Keith Whitley's ballad was Billboard's top country single of 1988, and Pickler's version appeared on the deluxe edition of her second album.

Kellie Pickler sang songs by which country star at both her American Idol audition and her first semifinal performance?

Martina McBride's A Broken Wing helped Pickler through her audition, and McBride's How Far was her first song in the voting rounds.

The video for Kellie Pickler's 2007 ballad about her absent mother was filmed inside which historic Nashville venue?

Ryman Auditorium is where the video opens, with Pickler stepping off her tour bus and greeting fans before singing on a bare stage.

Which town, Kellie Pickler's birthplace, gave her a key to the city and named a day after her in 2006?

Albemarle welcomed her back with a parade that May, shortly after her American Idol exit, and hung a banner calling itself her home.

In which city did a 19-year-old Kellie Pickler audition for American Idol in the fall of 2005?

Greensboro was where the judges sent her on to Hollywood, although she said she had hardly ever performed before a real audience.

Kellie Pickler entered which state's Music Hall of Fame in 2016, in the same class as the Avett Brothers?

North Carolina inducts musicians who were born there or made it their home, once ten years have passed since they entered the music industry.

Kellie Pickler voiced a character named Mirabelle in which long-running Christian animated video series?

VeggieTales cast her in Beauty and the Beet, in which Mirabelle and her family band are stranded at a ski resort on the way to a career-making gig.

Which cable network aired I Love Kellie Pickler, the reality series starring the singer and her husband?

CMT ordered 13 episodes and premiered the show in November 2015, and it ran until 2017.

Which song did Kellie Pickler sing during the seventh-inning stretch of the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game?

God Bless America came just two weeks after news broke that Pickler had parted ways with the record label she joined in 2006.

Kellie Pickler's third album was produced by Frank Liddell, the producer of the first six albums by which country star?

Miranda Lambert was the yardstick for one critic, who wrote that Pickler's third album rivaled Lambert's latest record for pure listening pleasure.

Which single co-written by her husband did Kellie Pickler perform on her return to Dancing with the Stars in late 2013?

Little Bit Gypsy was the second release from her fourth album, and it opens the record as track one.

Which independent Nashville label signed Kellie Pickler in 2012 after her contract with Sony Music Nashville ended?

Black River Entertainment released her fourth album, which topped the Independent Albums chart, before the two parted ways in 2016.

Which much-covered love ballad did Kellie Pickler sing in the week she was eliminated from American Idol?

Unchained Melody was her pick for a night of romantic standards, one week after she tackled the Great American Songbook.

While Kellie Pickler was on American Idol, Us Weekly ran a story billing her as the next version of which pop star?

Jessica Simpson was the comparison because of what the magazine called Pickler's sweet Southern style and ditzy demeanor.

In 2022, Kellie Pickler began hosting on The Highway, a country music channel carried by which audio service?

SiriusXM made her a DJ that February, nearly three years after her daytime talk show aired its final episode.