by Toby Keith, the greatest singer-songwriter of number one country hits such as “Who is your daddy?” and “Made in America” and one of Nashville’s biggest stars in three decades, died Monday. She was 62 years old.
His death was announced on its official website. The announcement did not say where she died. Elaine Schock, Mr. Keith’s publicist, would say only that he died in Oklahoma, where he had lived his entire life.
Keith announced in the summer of 2022 that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and was being treated with chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.
In a recent interview with the Oklahoma City television station KWTV, Keith, who performed several shows in Las Vegas in December, said he was still undergoing treatment. “Cancer is a roller coaster,” he said. “You just sit here and wait for it to go away; it may never go away.” He said his Christian faith was helping him get through the treatment and the possible dark outcome.
Singing with a baritone that alternated between declamatory and crooning, Keith cultivated a boisterous, direct personality with recordings such as “I want to talk about myself” and “Beer for my horses.”
Built around clever wordplay and playful humor (and more than a little macho braggadocio), the two topped Billboard’s country chart, with “Beer for My Horses,” a swinging, Rolling Stones-style rocker that featured with Willie Nelson as guest vocalist, moving into Top 40 pop.
Keith wrote or co-wrote most of their material, which ranged stylistically from traditional honky-tonk to pop-country ballads and southern rock. More than 60 of his singles reached the country charts, including 20 number one hits, and he sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. In 2015 he was included in the Songwriters Hall of Famea member of a class that included Cyndi Lauper, blues pioneer Willie Dixon, and Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.
Keith was already in his 30s, having struggled for years to make it in the music business, when he signed his first record deal in 1993. He had previously worked as a rodeo ranch hand, a bully in the Oklahoma oil fields, and a semi-professional. footballer to support his young family.
“When I came out and my song came on,” he added, referring to “Should Have Been a Cowboy,” which in 1993 became his first No. 1 country single, “I was doing 28, 29 shows a month because I didn’t know I was going to do it.” receive a second blow.”
“At that point,” he added, “I was just trying to outwork everyone.”
Despite his great popularity (and his blue-collar bona fides), Keith was often a lightning rod for controversy, especially when it came to politics.
Perhaps the most notable case was with “Courtesy of Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” which was both a number one country single and a pop hit in 2002. Keith wrote the song in response to both the 9/11 attacks and the death of his father, a disabled veteran who had died in a car accident. at the beginning of that year.
Delivered with a hometown fervor similar to that of Bob Seger and John Mellencamp, the song’s final verse could be heard as a patriotic rallying cry or a jingoistic rant, depending on one’s point of view.
Justice will be done and the battle will be fought
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
And you’ll regret messing with the US of A.
Because we’ll kick your ass. It’s the American style.
Amid other negative reactions, the record sparked a protracted feud with Natalie Maines, the lead singer of Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks), who viewed the song as the ugliest kind of nationalism, mocking her as “ignorant” and carrying Keith to task in interviews and on stage.
“I make no apologies for being patriotic,” Keith said in a 2007 interview with Newsday.
Fiercely independent, Keith described himself for years as a conservative Democrat, confounding his critics with seemingly contradictory statements expressing admiration, for example, for ideologically divergent people like Donald Trump and Barack Obama. (He later said he had re-registered as an independent voter.)
A particularly revealing example of Mr. Keith’s capacity for surprise was his 2003 recording of “If I were Jesus” an empathetic reflection, written by Phil Madeira and Chuck Cannon and reminiscent of the classic John Prine.
“If I were Jesus/I’d have some poor friends,” he sang over a lilting Caribbean rhythm to open the song’s second verse. “I’d run with the wrong crowd/Man, I’d never be bored/Then I’d heal a blind man and get myself crucified/By politicians and preachers who had something to hide.”
It was enough that Mr. Keith, whose critics dismissed him as a loudmouth oaf, delivered these lines with understatement and good humor. Especially compelling was his suggestion, in accordance with the principles of liberation theology, that God sides with sinners and the marginalized.
Inspired by Merle Haggard and other populist-leaning artists, Keith made music that reflected his roots in the post-Dust Bowl working-class culture of the American Southwest. In recognition of this kinship, he received the 2020 Merle Haggard Spirit Award from the Country Music Academy.
Toby Keith Covel was born on July 8, 1961 in Clinton, Oklahoma, the second of three children of Carolyn Joan (Ross) Covel and Hubert K. Covel Jr. His father worked as a derrick laborer in the oil industry. His mother was an aspiring singer who abandoned her musical pursuits to become a housewife.
Keith grew up primarily in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City. He got his first guitar at age 8 and then spent summers with his grandmother in Fort Smith, Arkansas, doing odd jobs at his club and occasionally playing with the house band.
After graduating from high school, he worked alongside his father in the oil fields and eventually became a supervisor. At 20, he and several friends formed a group called Easy Money Band and began playing in local bars before graduating to the Texas and Oklahoma roadhouse circuit.
Mr. Keith’s first foray into the Nashville music scene found him playing on street corners and knocking on doors, to no avail, along the city’s Music Row. It wasn’t until a fan working as a flight attendant passed his demo to producer Harold Shedd, known for his work with stars such as Reba McEntire and Shania Twain, that he landed a contract with Mercury Records.
His debut album for the label, titled “Toby Keith,” produced four Top 10 country singles and was certified platinum for sales of one million copies.
Determined to make a stronger, more indelible mark as a performer, Keith, however, grew restless and moved from one Mercury subsidiary to another before finding a home in 1998 at the newly created DreamWorks Records office in Nashville. The change was auspicious: Keith established a more robust, if rebellious, image, and 11 of his next 13 singles, including “How do you like me now?!” and “I want to talk about myself” reached number 1.
A bigger, fuller sound completed this transformation, not only matching Mr. Keith’s larger-than-life personality but also earning him Country Music Association honors for Vocalist of the Year in 2001 and Entertainer of the Year nominations in 2002 and 2003.
In 2005 he founded Show Dog Nashvillean independent label, with which he continued to have success, notably with a series of alcohol-themed singles such as “Make my drink.” and “Get drunk and be someone.” “Red Solo Cup” a country rap number, reached No. 1 on the country chart and moved into the pop Top 20 in 2011.
Keith had acting roles in two feature films, “Broken Bridges” in 2005 and “Beer for My Horses,” a 2008 film based on his hit single. He also appeared in television commercials for Ford trucks and established profitable restoration and clothing businesses. He was billed on the cover of a 2013 issue of Forbes magazine as “the country’s $500 million man.” The accompanying article reported that Mr. Keith’s personal wealth exceeded that of Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Keith’s presence on the charts declined as the 2010s progressed. But in 2021 he received the award National Medal of Artsalong with four other people, including bluegrass singer and mandolinist Ricky Skaggs.
Mr. Keith is survived by his mother; his wife of 39 years, Tricia (Lucus) Keith; two daughters, Shelley Covel and Krystal Sandubrae; a son, Stelen; a sister, Tonnie; a brother, Tracy; and four grandchildren.
For all his belligerence and bluster, Keith demonstrated considerable insight and restraint when, more than a year after it began, he abandoned his mishaps with Mrs. Maines for “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”
Having previously attacked Maines – going so far as to project images of her with those of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq on stage at his concerts – Keith virtually apologized for his role in the conflict in a 2003 interview with CMT. com.
“Sometimes it became quite cruel,” he said. “I’m ashamed of the way I got caught up in all that.”
Five years later, a rapprochement seemed imminent when Keith and the Chicks were recruited to appear in a television commercial supporting former Vice President Al Gore’s “We” campaign to address climate change. Reportedly, due to scheduling conflicts, the collaboration never happened.
