Chely Wright, singer, songwriter, country music star, writes in this moving and telling memoir about her life, growing up in Kansas City, the youngest of three children, making up her mind at a young age to become a country music star, making a pact with God - to keep her "sinning" to a minimum if he'd just get her to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. . . We see her, a featured vocalist at seventeen on the Ozark Jubilee (the show that started Brenda Lee, Red Foley and Porter Wagoner), being cast in Country Music U.S.A., a popular show in Opryland U.S.A., being asked to perform at that young age on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. . . She describes writing and singing her own songs for producers who'd discovered and recorded the likes of Reba McEntire, Billy Ray Cyrus, Shania Twain and Toby Keith ... signing her to a record contract with PolyGram, releasing her first album. . . sending her on her first tour bus, hitting the road, her music on local radio stations; her videos on TV; being showered with critical acclaim, awarded the Academy Of Country Music's Top New Female Vocalist. . . her first hit single, Shut Up And Drive. . .her songs (from her fourth album, Single White Female) climbing the Billboard chart for 29 weeks, finally hitting the #1 spot. . .

She writes about the friends she made along the way - Vince Gill...Brad Paisley and others, collaborating together, recording and touring together, some of the friendships developing into something more and not ending happily. . .

She writes about her drive that spurred her to write more hits, make more videos, produce bigger tours. . . how she was chosen as one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People. . . given the Humanitarian Award. . . named FHM's Top 20 Sexiest Women In Entertainment. . . appeared on the cover of USA Today. . . How, instead of breathing a sigh of relief, she writes about the terror she felt at losing everything she'd worked so hard to create. . .

And after, in the face of everything she did to ward it off, she writes about how the vortex of success took its toll; her life, a wreck she refused to see coming, and finally, how she found the guts to untangle herself from the image of the country music star she'd become, an image steeped in long-standing ideals and notions about who - and what - a country artist is, and what their fans expect them to be. . .

She writes about this time of life and death renewal, how she has come to terms with who she is, and how she has found a new voice in her music; with music flowing naturally from her that never came so easily.

Like Me is a book of revelation; fearless, inspiring, true