"America's Got Talent" singer lied about singing experience too, says ex-wife

Timothy Michael Poe appears on "America's Got Talent," on the episode that aired on June 4, 2012.

/ Virginia Sherwood,AP Photo/NBC

(CBS/AP) "America's Got Talent" contestant Timothy Michael Poe, who is under scrutiny for his claims of suffering a brain injury after blocking a grenade blast in 2009 to save his buddies in Afghanistan, may not have  been telling the truth about his singing experience either, according to his ex-wife.

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On Monday's show Poe said he suffered a stutter due to his injury, but when asked where it went during his cover of a Garth Brooks song, he said he discovered his talent only after his speech therapist suggested he sing in the shower to help with the stutter.

The truth, according to an ex-wife, was that Poe not only was never hurt on the battlefield, he had been singing "pretty much his whole life" and spent four years fronting an alternative rock and cover band in Rochester, Minn. A MySpace page last updated in February 2009 for the Rochester band Crawl Space lists Poe as vocalist.

Singing was the least of Poe's fictions, according to the Minnesota Army National Guard, which has issued statements contradicting Poe's account on the television show, igniting a firestorm online, especially among veterans and on military blogs, over Poe allegedly claiming glory and sympathy to which he's not entitled.

The Guard says its records show Poe never was injured in combat in Afghanistan or Iraq.

"It's embarrassing for me and it's embarrassing for his children and it's embarrassing for the military," said Shannon Conroy, who was married to Poe from November 2005 until this April.

[Texassteel]

I agree the guy is a low-class scumbag. Kick him off the show.

[erasmus111]

I knew he was lying. If you sing, the stutter goes away, but not when you are talking. He got through a number of sentences without stuttering. It's because he forgot!

He should be disqualified. He's not a great singer anyways. The only reason he made it through is because they felt sorry for him. Too many of the contestants are telling sob stories to get them through. They need to stop allowing it. No one needs to know their history.

[erasmus111]

Yes, I know it's true. There was a country singer that stuttered really bad when he talked, but when he sang, it completely disappeared. I was amazed when I heard him.

[jm222ed]

That was the late Mel Tillis. Sometimes he had to sing what he was trying to say, and it made him famous.
Check out "The Cannonball Run" with Burt Reynolds

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

It's OK. He said he's "Truly sorry" over the "incomplete facts". No problem then. Except he's only truly sorry about getting caught lying, not about the lies which he had dismissed as exaggerations similar to little kids bragging about their dads. Get rid of this mental case as soon as possible.