Toby Keith (July 8, 1961 – February 5, 2024) was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman.
Toby Keith Covel was born in Clinton, Oklahoma. Raised in Oklahoma City. Keith started playing music at a young age after being inspired by the musicians who worked in his grandmother’s supper club. In high school, Keith worked as a rodeo hand. After graduation, he went to work in the oil fields. It was around this time that he formed the Easy Money Band, which played in area honkytonks. He also met his future wife, Tricia Lucus. After Keith worked for three years in the oil fields, the oil industry in Oklahoma experienced significant declines. Keith turned to professional football, playing for the United States Football League (USFL). Two years later, he decided to focus on his music and began touring. He cut a few records with independent labels, and eventually one of his demo tapes made its way to Harold Shedd, a former producer for the country music group Alabama.
Shedd helped Keith land a deal with Mercury Records. In 1993, Keith released his self-titled debut album, which sold more than two million copies. The album reached platinum status and established Keith as a professional singer/songwriter. The following year, Keith released his second album, Boomtown, which reached gold status. Two years later, he released Blue Moon, with the entire album reaching platinum status.
In 1997, Keith teamed up with producer James Stroud to release the album Dream Walkin’. Three songs on the album made the Top Five, including “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying,” a duet with Sting that also landed the duo a Grammy nomination. After becoming increasingly disillusioned with the label’s marketing and promotional tactics, Keith left Mercury Records in 1999, purchasing the songs on his unreleased album from the label. He took his songs with him and followed James Stroud to Nashville, where he signed on with DreamWorks Records. That same year, Keith released his first album with DreamWorks, How Do You Like Me Now?! The title track reached No. 1 on the country charts and landed him on the Top 40 pop charts for the first time. The album earned him ACM’s Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year, both in 2001.
Toby Keith became a household name, and he began to appear in mainstream media. He received cameo roles in the television show Touched by an Angel and the Dukes of Hazzard TV reunion movie; he also appeared in a series of telephone commercials. Over the next ten years, Keith released an additional thirteen albums, including three greatest hits albums. His Pull My Chain album was his first album to top the country charts and his first Top Ten album on the pop charts. The album also included three No. 1 singles.
Unleashed (2002) debuted at No. 1 on the country and pop charts. No. 1 hits included “Who’s Your Daddy?” and “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American).” The album sold more than three million copies and included the Top Ten hit, “Beer for My Horses,” a duet Keith recorded with country music legend Willie Nelson. Their music video won an ACM Award in 2004. Keith released Honkytonk University in 2005, which included notable hits such as “She Ain’t Hooked on Me No More,” which was a duet with Merle Haggard, and its biggest single, “As Good As I Once Was,” which won the Country Music Association (CMA) Award for 2005 Video of the Year. In 2005, he left DreamWorks; afterward, its parent company—Universal Music Group—closed the label. In 2007, Keith was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
Keith launched his own label, Show Dog Records, and in 2006, he released the label’s debut album, White Trash with Money. The next year, he released Big Dog Daddy, the first album he produced on his own. He released three more albums under this label before merging with Universal South to create the label Show Dog-Universal Records in 2010.
Between 2010 and 2023, Keith released fourteen albums, including Clancy’s Tavern (2011), which was inspired by his grandmother’s club in Arkansas and the time he spent there. Keith was named Artist of the Decade at the American Country Awards (ACA) in December 2011.
Though he released several albums after Clancy’s Tavern, none reached the level of success he enjoyed with it or the albums prior. In 2015, Keith was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2019, he wrote a song for Clint Eastwood’s film The Mule.
Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the fall of 2021, undergoing chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, and surgery. After his diagnosis, he focused on this charity work, the Toby Keith Foundation and the OK Kids Korral, and spending time with his family. Keith succumbed to the disease on February 5, 2024.
(Edited Encyclopedia Of Arkansas & IMDb)