“Most people think I’m a redneck patriot. I’m O.K. with that,” the musician from Oklahoma once said. He won a slew of awards and 32 chart-topping hits
By Nick Krewen
Special to the Star
For the first decade of his career, country music superstar Toby Keith philosophically commiserated with the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield: he felt he got no respect.
That changed by the end of his life, at least within the country music industry. Keith died Monday following a two-year battle with stomach cancer. He was 62.
His early perception of a lack of appreciation certainly wasn’t generated by the public: his very first single, “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” topped the charts for two weeks in 1993 and three of his next four singles — “He Ain’t Worth Missing,” “A Little Less Talk and A Little More Action” and “Wish I Didn’t Know Now” literally missed the bullseye by one position.
The fourth — “Who’s That Man” — returned him to No. 1, and it seemed that every time Toby Keith released a new song through 2011, it would drench the radio airwaves and spark the sound of millions of ringing cash registers throughout North America.
As his catalogue grew, he filled clubs and then arenas, as his fans came out to see him in droves. Billboard Magazine even declared him to be the most played new country artist on radio in his rookie year of 1993.
No, the consternation felt by Keith was reserved for Nashville’s music industry: despite his consistent and numerous accomplishments, he was often overlooked as a nominee at awards time.
And in the country music world, the importance of televised awards to an escalating career cannot be overstated.
“That was the most frustrating part — those award shows,” Keith told Country Music magazine in 2000. “Those awards shows mean so much in terms of visibility. They tell your viewer, ‘We think this act is really good.’ That gives you a better chance of getting heard.”
Toby Keith Covel, who was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, had a few theories about his lack of acceptance by the Nashville music community — one of them being, unlike so many other artists, he refused to move there.
I wasn’t out shaking hands,” he said. “I wasn’t out being politically connected. I just thought, ‘if you’re Billboard’s most played new country artist of 1993, you’ve broken through in a big way.’ But I got no nominations!
“It was like a kick square in the teeth. I thought, ‘I don’t live here and they’re just not going to accept me. I’m an outsider.’”
It wasn’t the first rejection he felt: Keith had earlier approached Capitol Records with demo tapes that included “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” and many of his future hits, and was told by the label that as a writer he should go “back to the woodshed.”
He finally found a believer in Mercury Nashville president Harold Shedd, who says he signed Keith to the label because “his songs were more unique than most writers. He also had his own identity, his own style and was very versatile.”
He later signed with DreamWorks Nashville in 1999, where he hit his stride with “How Do You Like Me Now?!” — a defiant anthem of humour and told-you-so-vengeance that struck a chord with the public — and his first song of many that would dominate the top chart position for five weeks at a time.
A six-foot-four and 240 pound ex-oil rigger and semi-pro football athlete, he was country music’s blue collar macho man, often adding a humorous swagger to country mega-hits like “I Wanna Talk About Me,” (five weeks at No. 1;) “Beer For My Horses,” (with Willie Nelson, six weeks;) “I Love This Bar” (five weeks) and “As Good As I Once Was,” (six weeks) songs that revealed Roger Miller and Shel Silverstein as key inspirations as much as his more earnest Bob Wills and Merle Haggard influences.
These successes sealed the persona of Keith as a savvy artist — even the Nashville power brokers rewarded him with a Country Music Award for Best Male Vocalist in 2001, and eventually nominated him four times for CMA Entertainer of the Year.
A devoted family man and father of three, Keith also considered himself a patriot, with songs like “American Soldier” (No 1., four weeks) and his response to the 9/11 attacks in New York — 2002’s “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)” — hitting a populist nerve.
But that patriotism came with controversy, both in the entertainment world and in politics.
The most notorious incident occurred when Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks criticized President George W. Bush on the eve of the invasion of Iraq and later “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue” for its nationalistic fervour,. She particularly objected to Keith’s lyric telling enemy foreign powers that the U.S. will ”put a boot in your ass — it’s the American way.”
“I hate it,” Maines told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture — and not just the bad people who did bad things. You’ve got to have some tact.”
Keith further ignited the feud by projecting doctored images of Maines standing next to 9/11 architect Saddam Hussein at his concerts. Maines, in response, wore T-shirts on stage with the initials “F.U.T.K.” The fight between the artists petered out a year later.
Outspoken and unapologetic, Keith described himself to TIME Magazine as “an extremely conservative Democrat,” also acknowledging his support of the U.S. military when it came to the war with Iraq and his defense of the troops.
“Most people think I’m a redneck patriot. I’m O.K. with that.”
He’s performed for numerous presidents over the last two decades, Democrat and Republican, and also played for Donald Trump at his inauguration.
But just because he played for him doesn’t mean he supported him: Keith was quoted in Rolling Stone in 2016 as saying he wasn’t impressed with either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, going so far as to accuse them of running strictly for the publicity.
“This is by far the best country you could ever live in, and we picked these two candidates to be media whores and go out there and take care of the world, huh?” he said.
When he wasn’t busy being outspoken or unapologetic, Toby Keith established a number of successful businesses: his independent Show Dog record label, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill chain in the U.S., the clothing line TK Steelman and his line of Wild Shot Mezcal. His Toby Keith Foundation was founded in 2006 to provide Oklahoma-based pediatric cancer patients and their families no-cost housing during treatment.
A National Medal of the Arts recipient, by the time Keith was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2015, he had amassed 32 chart-topping hits — an additional 14 Top 10 placements — and over 40 million albums sold.
He was one of the constants of contemporary country music and, as Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks wrote on Instagram: “He was a relentless participant in every aspect of his life — performing, writing, golf, hanging with his friends, along with his dedication to the military and the red white and blue. But he always put his loyalty and love of god (sic) and family first — he was one of those guys I just assumed would always be there.”