Country music legend Toby Keith died Monday at age 62.
Keith, who had battled stomach cancer since 2022, passed peacefully surrounded by his family, according to a statement posted on the country singer’s website and social media accounts early Tuesday.
“He fought his fight with grace and courage,” the statement said.
— Toby Keith (@tobykeith) February 6, 2024
The 6-foot-4 singer-songwriter broke out in the country boom years of the 1990s, crafting an identity around his pro-American swagger and writing songs that fans loved to hear.
Over his career, the Oklahoma native publicly clashed with other celebrities and journalists and often pushed back against record executives who wanted to smooth his rough edges.
Keith was known for the proud patriotism on post-9/11 songs such as “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and for boisterous barroom tunes such as “I Love This Bar” and “Red Solo Cup.”
He had a powerful booming voice, a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and range that carried love songs as well as drinking songs.
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Among his 20 No. 1 Billboard hits were “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “As Good As I Once Was,” “My List” and “Beer for My Horses,” a duet with Willie Nelson.
Keith worked as a roughneck in the oil fields of Oklahoma as a young man, then played semi-pro football before launching his career as a singer.
“I write about life, and I sing about life, and I don’t overanalyze things,” he told The Associated Press in 2001, following the success of his song “I’m Just Talking About Tonight.”
Keith learned good lessons in the booming oil fields, which toughened him up but also showed him the value of money.
“The money to be made was unbelievable,” he told the AP in 1996. “I came out of high school in 1980 and they gave me this job [in] December of 1979, $50,000 a year. I was 18 years old.”
But the domestic oil field industry collapsed, and Keith had not saved. “It about broke us,” he said. “So I just learned. I’ve taken care of my money this time.”
Keith spent a couple of seasons as a defensive end for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a farm team for the now-defunct United States Football League. But he found consistent money playing music with his band throughout the red dirt roadhouse circuit in Oklahoma and Texas.
“All through this whole thing the only constant thing we had was music,” he said. “But it’s hard to sit back and say, ‘I’m going to go make my fortune singing music, or writing music. I had no contacts.”‘
Eventually, his path took him to Nashville, Tennessee, where he attracted the interest of Mercury Records head Harold Shedd, who was best known as a producer for the hit group Alabama. Shedd brought him to Mercury, where he released his platinum debut record “Toby Keith,” in 1993.
“Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” his breakout hit, was played 3 million times on radio stations, making it the most-played country song of the 1990s.
But the label’s focus on global star Shania Twain overshadowed the rest of the roster, and Keith felt that the executives were trying to push him in a pop direction.
“They were trying to get me to compromise, and I was living a miserable existence,” he told the AP. “Everybody was trying to mold me into something I was not.”
After a series of albums that produced hits such as “Who’s That Man” and a cover of Sting’s “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying,” Keith moved to DreamWorks Records in 1999.
That’s when his smash hit “How Do You Like Me Now?!” took off and became his first song to crossover to the Top 40 charts.
In 2001, Keith won the male vocalist of the year and album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, exclaiming from the stage: “I’ve waited a long time for this. Nine years!”
Songs such as “I Wanna Talk About Me,” a spoken-word song written by Bobby Braddock about a man frustrated by a talkative partner, got him attention for its similarity to the cadence of rap, which Keith dismissed.
“They’re going to call it a rap song, [although] there ain’t nobody doing rap who would call it rap,” he told Billboard magazine in 2001.
Keith often wore his patriotism on his sleeve, especially after the Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in 2001.
He played at events for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the latter giving him a National Medal of the Arts in 2021.
His songs and his blunt opinions sometimes caused him controversy, which he seemed to court.
His 2002 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” included a threat — “We’ll put a boot in your ass, It’s the American way” – to anyone who dared to mess with America.
That song got pulled from a patriotic ABC Fourth of July special after producers deemed it too angry for the show. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle called Keith’s song “pandering to people’s worst instincts at a time they are hurt and scared.”
Then there was the feud between Keith and The Chicks (formerly called the Dixie Chicks), who became a target of Keith’s ire when singer Natalie Maines told a crowd that they were ashamed of then-President Bush. Maines had also previously called Keith’s song “ignorant.”
He used a fake photo of Maines with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his concerts. She responded by wearing a shirt with the letters “FUTK” onstage at the 2003 ACM Awards, which many people believed was a vulgar message to Keith.
Keith, who has acknowledged that he holds onto grudges, walked out of the ACM Awards in 2003 early because he had gotten snubbed in earlier categories, causing him to miss out when he was announced as entertainer of the year. Vince Gill accepted on his behalf.
He came back the next year and won the top prize for a second year in a row, along with top male vocalist and album of the year for “Shock ’n Y’all.”
Keith’s pro-military stance wasn’t just fodder for songs, however. He went on 11 USO tours to visit and play for troops serving overseas. He also helped to raise millions of dollars for charity over his career, including building a home in Oklahoma City for kids and their families who are battling cancer.
After Universal Music Group acquired DreamWorks, Keith started anew again, launching his own record label, Show Dog, in 2005 with record executive Scott Borchetta.
“Probably 75 percent of the people in this town think I’ll fail, and the other 25 percent hope I fail,” he said that year.
Later the label became Show Dog-Universal Music and had Keith, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Josh Thompson, Clay Walker and Phil Vassar on its roster.
Keith’s later hits included “Love Me If You Can,” “She Never Cried In Front of Me” and “Red Solo Cup.”
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.
Keith was honored by the performance rights organization BMI in November 2022 with the BMI Icon award, a few months after announcing his stomach cancer diagnosis.
“I always felt like that the songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry,” he told the crowd of fellow singers and writers.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
