Cady Groves, ‘Forget You’ country music singer, dies at 30

Cady Groves, the Oklahoma-born singer/songwriter, died on Saturday, May 2. She was 30.

She was best known for country and pop hits such as This Little Girl (2011) and Forget You, which appeared on The Smurfs 2 (2013) soundtrack.

Groves’ music career kicked off in 2009 after the death of her older brother, Casey. She signed with RCA Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music, the following year, as reported by Billboard.

Cady’s older brother Cody confirmed her death in a Twitter post on Sunday afternoon. Though he did not reveal the cause of death, he followed up with  a second tweet hours later, revealing that there was no indication of “foul play” or “self-harm.”

“The medical examiner has completed [an] autopsy and there was no indication of foul play or self harm,” he wrote. “Simply put, Cady Groves died of natural causes.”

Cody continued: “[Cady] had some medical problems last fall and our best guess at this point until further testing is complete is that they had resurfaced.”

Furthermore, he suggested that his younger sister had passed away in Nashville, Tenn., where she resided.

“Carole Pettit and I are a little over halfway to Nashville and basically running on adrenaline and caffeine,” wrote Cody, referencing the lengthy journey he and his mother endured to get to Cady.

Cady released an abundance of singles and three EPs: Month of Sundays (2009), This Little Girl (2010) and Life of a Pirate (2012), before parting ways with RCA in 2013 and ultimately exiting the spotlight, according to Vel Records (via Spotify).

Though Groves took a brief hiatus break from her music career, she moved to Kansas and signed to Vel Records in 2015 — an independent, New York-based label.

In wake of the news of Cady’s unexpected passing, her friends, fans and collaborators took to social media expressing their grief while also sharing fond memories of the singer.

Here’s what some Twitter users had to say:

“RIP, @cadygroves. I love you so f–king much. I don’t even know what to say. I’m f–king crushed. You were so accepting and kind and talented, you helped me when I was struggling with being gay,” tweeted another friend.

“More of the world deserved to know your talent. You were one of a kind,” they concluded.

Throughout her career, Groves toured with alt. rock bands like Third Eye Blind, Good Charlotte and All Time Low, as reported by the Independent.

Country superstar Blake Shelton made a cameo in Cady’s breakthrough music video, This Little Girl. The Nobody But You singer played the role of a stubborn tow-truck driver.

After leaving RCA, Cady returned to the music scene in 2015 with the fan-favourite Crying Game single, before putting out her fourth and unknowingly final EP, Dreams, for free.

According to her brother Cody, Cady was working on songs for her highly anticipated fifth EP before her passing.

In a statement provided to Billboard, Vel confirmed that fact, by revealing that Cady had parted ways with the label and was working on the new project with the Thirty Tigers label.

Cady was the youngest of seven siblings. As well as Casey — who died at the age of 28 in 2007 — her older brother Kelly died at the same age in 2014. Their deaths inspired a number of her musical writings, according to Vel.

For weeks before her death, the musician shared personal updates to her friends and fans on Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic, expressing feelings of anxiety, loneliness and overall struggles with her mental health.

“Some days my mental health is AWFUL,” she wrote on April 15. “I feel completely alone and scared and far from everyone I love and all I can do is keep myself busy and push through.”

Cady was born on July 30, 1989 in Marlow, Okla. She is survived by parents Carol Pettit and Larry Groves and siblings Kevan, Kyle and Kelsy.

For more information about Cady, or her career, you can visit her official website.

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If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.

The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Depression Hurts and Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868  all offer ways of getting help if you, or someone you know, may be suffering from mental health issues.

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