Splash NewsUPDATE: Danno Hanks has sent the following statement to E! News regarding comments he initially made criticizing Dr. Drew Pinsky.
"There are reports out there that I had 'blasted' Dr. Drew for not reaching out to Mindy McCready. In frustration, while doing an interview with E! Entertainment, I did make that comment. However, I have since learned from several sources that Dr. Drew had been in contact with Mindy and was trying to get her some help. In addition, I have since talked to Dr. Drew several times and realize that even though he did not respond to my emails to him, he did respond to Mindy's. I apologize to Dr. Drew. He has always had Mindy's best interest in mind."
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Mindy McCready's close friend, Danno Hanks, the private investigator who talked with her just days before her tragic suicide and recorded what would be her final interview, is opening up some more about the last days of the troubled singer.
In part two of an exclusive interview with E! News, Hanks heavily criticized Dr. Drew Pinsky—who helped treat McCready for addiction on his VH1 show Celebrity Rehab—for failing to contact her in her time of need these last few weeks, particularly after the Jan. 13 suicide of her boyfriend, David Wilson.
"She made a lot of money for Dr. Drew, being on that show," Hanks told E! News on Sunday. "I had his personal email, and when she started going through these problems, I sent him several emails. But he never had the time to call her. He's a professional and he didn't have the time. And that's recently. You can bet your ass he's going to be on some talk show tomorrow talking about it."
In a statement posted on his VH1 blog, though, Pinsky claimed he "reached out to her recently" following Wilson's death and that in their conversation the "Ten Thousand Angels" singer admitted that although she was "fearful of stigma and ridicule," she agreed with him that she "needed to make her health and safety a priority."
Hanks insisted, however, that within the last week, McCready told him that Dr. Drew "didn't reach out" and certainly not after her sons Zander, 6, and Zayne, 9 months old, were removed from her care by Arkansas' Department of Human Services.
"I wanted him to give an assessment of how she was as a mother to help her in court. To get her kids back. I don't know, I'm not really happy with reality television," he said, adding further, "I can't say for sure that he never called but I'm saying that was the impression I got."
Hanks also elaborated some more on the video project McCready had him put together featuring "I'll See You Yesterday"—a song written by up-and-coming artist Courtney Dashe that she wanted to cover as a way for her to mourn Wilson. He told E! News he thought she intended it as an antisuicide PSA, but it was really "her suicide note"—at least that's the way he views it.
"I don't know [at what point she decided to take her own life]," the private eye said. "She started sending me these pictures a couple of days ago and she wanted to put together this video…I'm gonna tell you, she wanted me to put the video out there."
Danno also noted Mindy had concerns about recording the song, citing fears that people might think "it's just Mindy McCready trying to make a buck off of David's death."
Hanks has since put the song/antisuicide PSA up on YouTube and urged anyone thinking about suicide to contact suicideispreventable.org.
Last but not least, the P.I. slammed the tabloids for making a big deal out of McCready's infamous sex tape, which Vivid Entertainment bought from an unknown source and distributed.
"Mindy was a very sexual person. Who in America hasn't made a video these days? But what happened was, somebody got ahold of that tape and sold it to a porn producer. And they used her connection to put out this Baseball Mistress porn video. And said they had a contract with Mindy's signature authorizing to put it out."
Hanks claimed, however, that he "had Mindy's signature on a lot of things" and that the signature on the porn contract was not hers. He also said that McCready told him that it was her own mother who put it out there, saying she found the tape, "wanted a few bucks and sold it."
"If you can't trust your own family not to screw you, who can you trust?" asked Hanks.
(Originally published on Feb. 19, 2013 at 10:03 AM PST)