“American Idol” finalist Rickey Smith — who sang “I’ve Done Enough Dyin’ Today” by Larry Gatlin in Season 2 — was killed Friday morning in an Oklahoma car crash, according to news reports.
People magazine reported:
“Smith was traveling on the I-240 freeway outside of Oklahoma City just after 3 a.m. when another driver, identified by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol as Gerardo Cerda Jr., collided head-on with Smith’s Honda Accord. Cerda, 27, who was traveling west in the eastbound lanes in a GMC pickup truck, was treated at a local hospital following the crash. He was then transferred to jail after members of the patrol detected an odor of alcohol in Cerda’s truck.”
Smith was eighth in 2003, behind Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken and Kim Caldwell.
According to Hollywood Life, “Rickey hung around L.A. for a couple of years after Idol, but when he was running out of cash, he moved back to Oklahoma. ‘I wasn’t ready to accept the fact that I had to come back and give up music,’ Rickey said during an interview with USA Today in 2008.”
Aiken was devastated:
Suffice it to say my heart is truly breaking today. ? Heaven’s choir has a new beautiful voice. I love you and will miss you, Rickey. ?
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) May 6, 2016
Other early mourning:
Devastated to learn that Rickey Smith was killed in a car crash in Oklahoma. Rickey was the first Idol I met and he was my friend. RIP.
— Fred Bronson (@FredBronson) May 6, 2016
Y’all might remember Rickey Smith. He was in the 2nd season of American Idol. That guy that would clap his hands and say HERCULES HERCULES!!
— BDC (@b_radical_) May 6, 2016