Early Life
Born Amanda Carol Barnett, she was the only child of Betty and Dan Barnett (who worked respectively as a bookkeeper and contractor). Barnett began her musical career by singing in church at the age of five. Her mother encouraged her by booking singing engagements wherever people would listen: bowling alleys, VFW halls and political rallies (notably for Lamar Alexander and future Vice President Al Gore, Jr.). When there was no venue, she would perform in parking lots. By age nine, her father financed a professionally recorded gospel music album. The following summer, she had joined a summer theatre cast at Dollywood and shared the stage with Dolly Parton herself. It was during her two years at Dollywood that she won a talent contest that included making a demo in Nashville.
Read more about this topic: Mandy Barnett
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)