Neal McCoy’s Kids Shaped by His Angel Network

Neal McCoy and his wife Melinda started his East Texas Angel Network 16 years ago to help critically ill children from around his home state, and the foundation has not only helped countless families from the area over the years, it also ended up inspiring Neal's daughter Miki to devote her life to working with those less fortunate. In fact, both of Neal's kids have been involved with the network for most of their lives, something that makes papa Neal pretty proud.

"My daughter is 24, and she's been around the foundation all her life," Neal tells The Boot. "She ended up getting involved with kids at her school who were disabled, and she got so involved that she graduated from Texas A&M with her special education degree. Now she works with autistic kids and nonverbal kids. But now she's pregnant, and her job is really physically tough and mentally tough, and since she's about five months pregnant, I'm not sure how much longer she'll be able to do it, because the kids are kind of rough sometimes. But she really loves it."

Neal's son Swayde is also involved with the network, lending a hand at the annual benefit concert each year. The 16-year-old even performed at one of the benefits, and is hoping to follow in his dad's footsteps as a singer, although Neal isn't quite sure his destiny necessarily lies in front of the microphone.

"Swayde helps out with the benefit every year. He gets kids from his school to come to the concert, and last year he got up and played with his band and they did one song. He's not very good yet, poor thing ... he's a great kid, and he wants to be a singer, but he just doesn't sing very good, and I tell him that all the time," Neal says, laughing. "But he loves it, and I say, 'Swayde, you're just not hearing pitch buddy, and you're not gonna get there. Maybe you can be in the industry, but you might want to look into doing something else.' And I think he's getting better, but I don't think he can be a singer quite on his own yet. Maybe he can get to sing harmony with a band or something."

Neal is extremely excited about the pending birth of his first grandchild, the newest member of the "family band." The baby may actually be an Independence baby, since it's due around the fourth of July. "We're tickled to death about it," says the future grandpa. "We can't wait!"

Meanwhile, Neal is currently back out on the road touring, and plans to return to Branson, Mo. for a series of shows this year, a place he says he really enjoys playing. "A lot of artists may not like Branson so much because it's a little bit of an older crowd, but I enjoy it a lot. I pride myself on being an entertainer, and I like to tell jokes, and in Branson at those shows I get a chance to do that and show people what I'm capable of ... I bring it down, and do some different things, and show folks that I can still sing pretty good!"