{"id":67677,"date":"2020-11-02T01:33:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T01:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=67677"},"modified":"2020-11-02T01:33:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T01:33:28","slug":"american-idol-star-nikki-mckibbin-dead-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=67677","title":{"rendered":"\u2018American Idol\u2019 star Nikki McKibbin dead at 42"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikki McKibbin \u2014 the pink-haired rocker who made a big impression during\u00a0<\/span>American Idol<\/em>\u2019s inaugural 2002 season with her feisty Alannah Myles, Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, Bonnie Tyler, Stevie Nicks, and Janis Joplin covers, and eventually placed third behind Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini \u2014 has died. According to a personal\u00a0<\/span>Facebook post\u00a0by her husband, Craig Sadler, McKibbin suffered a brain aneurysm on Wednesday, and was kept on life support until Saturday so that her organs could be recovered for donation. She was 42.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe current COVID situation won’t allow the huge service that [McKibbin] deserves, but I would like to offer you the opportunity to honor her.\u00a0She will be taken to the OR at 3:00 am Central time to give her final gift that will save the lives of strangers,\u201d Sadler wrote on Facebook. \u201cYou probably know she practically worshiped Stevie Nicks. Before they begin, they will play \u2018Landslide\u2019 for her one last time. If you are able, you can pause at 3:00 wherever you are and listen to it with her. She will know that you’re sharing her farewell. She loved so many of you and I know you loved her too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikki McKibbin was born Sept. 28, 1978 in Grain Prairie, Texas, and she got her start on reality television in 2001 via the WB girl-group competition\u00a0<\/span>Popstars<\/em>. But it was her participation in the first season of a singing competition that would become a bona fide pop-culture phenomenon,\u00a0<\/span>American Idol<\/em>, that made her a star a year later (and arguably set the template for fuchsia-haired female\u00a0<\/span>Idol<\/em>\u00a0rockers for seasons to come). While McKibbin did not win\u00a0<\/span>Idol<\/em>, she was offered a post-show contract with 19 Management and RCA Records; unfortunately, the\u00a0<\/span>Idol<\/em>\u00a0powers-that-be pushed her to record a country album, while McKibbin wanted to remain true to her rock roots, so the deal fell apart and no music was released. McKibbin\u2019s only full-length album,\u00a0<\/span>Unleashed<\/em>, eventually came out independently in 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

McKibbin\u2019s next high-profile reality television appearance was on\u00a0<\/span>Season 2 of VH1\u2019s\u00a0Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew<\/em>\u00a0in 2008, on which she received help for her serious cocaine and alcohol addiction. On that show, she revealed that she had been sexually, physically, and emotionally abused as a child, and that her mother had died from addiction the previous year. After completing treatment, McKibbin appeared on VH1\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Celebrity Rehab<\/em>\u00a0spinoff\u00a0<\/span>Sober House<\/em>, on which she sang her original song \u201cInconsolable.\u201d The emotional performance, her first-ever performance while sober, was filmed on the first anniversary of her mother’s death. McKibbin later appeared\u00a0<\/span>Celebrity Rehab<\/em>\u00a0Season 5 to celebrate three years of sobriety and perform for that season’s cast. (At the time of her death, McKibbin had been sober for 12 years, since June 10, 2008.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In another full-circle TV moment, McKibbin also later returned to\u00a0<\/span>Idol<\/em>\u00a0in 2014, when her son Tristan Langley, who was 15 at the time, auditioned for Season 13 and made it through to Hollywood. Langley\u2019s audition aired 12 years after he had given his mother a rose on the\u00a0<\/span>Idol<\/em>\u00a0stage when he was just 4 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n