Neal Boyd, one-Time ‘America’s Got Talent’ winner, dies

SIKESTON, Mo. — Neal Boyd, an opera singer who won NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and dabbled in Missouri politics, has died.

Scott County Coroner Scott Amick says Boyd died around 6 p.m. Sunday at his mother’s house in Sikeston. He was 42.

Amick says Boyd had a number of medical problems, including heart failure, kidney failure and liver problems. He was seriously injured in a car crash in 2017.

Boyd won the network TV show and its $1 million prize in 2008. He released the album “My American Dream” in 2009, and performed at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Boyd also ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a southeast Missouri House of Representatives seat, losing in the general election in 2012 and in the primary in 2014.