Country singer Toby Keith died Monday at the age of 62, after an 18-month battle with stomach cancer.
“Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family,” a press release posted to Keith’s web site and social media mentioned.
“He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time.”
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Keith was recognized with stomach cancer in 2022.
Keith carried out at the 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards in September and obtained the Country Icon Award.
He additionally carried out his hit Don’t Let The Old Man In on stage in Las Vegas in December, in considered one of his closing public appearances.
He launched his debut album in 1993 and is thought for hits together with Red Solo Cup and I Wanna Talk About Me.
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Keith’s 2002 music Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American), launched within the aftermath of the 9/11 assaults, made him a family identify.
Sometimes a polarising determine in nation music, the 6-foot-4 singer broke out within the nation increase years of the Nineteen Nineties, crafting an id round his macho, pro-American swagger and writing songs that followers beloved to listen to.
Over his profession he publicly clashed with different celebrities and journalists and infrequently pushed again towards file executives who needed to easy his tough edges.
Among his 20 No. 1 Billboard hits had been 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 labored as a roughneck within the oil fields of Oklahoma as a younger man, then performed semi-pro soccer earlier than launching his profession as a singer.
“I write about life, and I sing about life, and I don’t overanalyse things,” Keith instructed The Associated Press in 2001, following the success of his music I’m Just Talking About Tonight.
Keith discovered good classes within the booming oil fields, which toughened him up, but additionally confirmed him the worth of cash.
“The money to be made was unbelievable,” Keith instructed The Associated Press in 1996.
“I came out of high school in 1980 and they gave me this job December of 1979, $50,000 a year. I was 18-years-old.”
But the home oil subject trade collapsed and Keith had not saved. (*62*) he mentioned. “So I just learned. I’ve taken care of my money this time.”
He spent a pair seasons as a defensive finish for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a farm staff for the now-defunct United States Football League. But he discovered constant cash taking part in music with his band all through the pink filth roadhouse circuit in Oklahoma and Texas.
“All through this whole thing the only constant thing we had was music,” he mentioned. “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, the place he attracted the curiosity of Mercury Records head Harold Shedd, who was finest often known as a producer for the hit group Alabama. Shedd introduced him to Mercury, the place he launched his platinum debut file Toby Keith, in 1993.
Should’ve Been a Cowboy, his breakout hit, was performed three million occasions on radio stations, making it probably the most performed nation music of the Nineteen Nineties.
But label’s deal with world star Shania Twain overshadowed the remainder of the roster and Keith felt that the executives had been making an attempt to push him in a pop route.
“They were trying to get me to compromise, and I was living a miserable existence,” Keith instructed the AP. “Everybody was trying to mold me into something I was not.”
After a sequence of albums that produced hits like Who’s That Man, and canopy of Sting’s I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying, Keith moved to DreamWorks Records in 1999.
That’s when his multi-week How Do You Like Me Now?! took off and have become his first music to crossover to Top 40 charts.
In 2001, he received the male vocalist of the 12 months and album of the 12 months at the Academy of Country Music Awards, exclaiming from the stage: “I’ve waited a long time for this. Nine years!”
Songs like I Wanna Talk About Me, a spoken-word music written by Bobby Braddock a few man annoyed by a talkative companion, received him consideration 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 instructed Billboard journal in 2001.
Keith typically wore his politics on his sleeve, particularly after the terrorist assaults on US soil in 2001, and early on he mentioned was a conservative Democrat, however later claimed he was an impartial.
He’s performed at occasions 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 generally precipitated him controversy, which he appeared to court docket.
His 2002 music, Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) included a risk—”We’ll put a boot in your ass – It’s the American way” – to anybody who dared to mess with America.
That music received pulled from a patriotic ABC Fourth of July particular after producers deemed it too indignant for the present. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle referred to as Keith’s music “pandering to people’s worst instincts at a time they are hurt and scared”.
Then there was the feud between Keith and The Chicks (previously referred to as the Dixie Chicks), who grew to become a goal of Keith’s ire when singer Natalie Maines instructed a crowd that they had been ashamed of then President George W. Bush. Maines had additionally beforehand referred to as Keith’s music “ignorant”.
Keith, who had beforehand claimed that he supported any artist’s freedom to voice their opinion about politics, used a doctored picture of Maines with a picture of Saddam Hussein at his live shows, additional ramping up indignant followers.
Maines responded by sporting a shirt with the letters “FUTK” onstage at the 2003 ACM Awards, which many individuals believed was a vulgar message to Keith.
He additionally publicly referred to as out actor Ethan Hawke, who had written a narrative in Rolling Stone that described an argument between Kris Kristofferson and an unnamed nation star that sounded lots like Keith. During a backstage press convention throughout an awards present, Keith was livid at Hawke (and reporters for repeating the story) for what he referred to as a “fictitious (expletive) lie.”
Keith, who has acknowledged that he holds onto grudges, walked out of the ACM Awards in 2003 early as a result of he had gotten snubbed in earlier classes, inflicting him to overlook out when he was introduced as entertainer of the 12 months. Vince Gill accepted on his behalf. He got here again the following 12 months and received the highest prize for a second 12 months in a row, alongside with high male vocalist and album of the 12 months for “Shock ‘n Y’all”.
His pro-military stance wasn’t simply fodder for songs, nonetheless. He went on 11 USO excursions to go to and play for troops serving abroad. He additionally helped to raised hundreds of thousands for charity over his profession, together with constructing a house in Oklahoma City for youths and their households who’re battling cancer.
After Universal Music Group acquired DreamWorks, Keith began anew once more, beginning his personal file label, Show Dog, in 2005 with file govt Scott Borchetta, who launched his personal label Big Machine at the identical time.
“Probably 75 percent of the people in this town think I’ll fail, and the other 25 percent hope I fail,” he mentioned that 12 months.
Later the label grew to become Show Dog-Universal Music and had Keith, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Josh Thompson, Clay Walker and Phil Vassar on its roster.
His 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.
He was honored by the efficiency rights organisation BMI in November 2022 with the BMI Icon award, just a few months after asserting his stomach cancer prognosis.
“I always felt like that the songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry,” Keith instructed the gang of fellow singers and writers.
– Reported with CNN and Associated Press.
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