Toby Keith, a country music icon, died after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. He was 62 years old. Known for patriotic anthems like “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” and “Made in America,” the singer-songwriter passed away “peacefully last night, February 5, surrounded by his family,” it says. a statement on its official website. “He fought his fight with grace and bravery.”
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Keith was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 and revealed the news to fans a year later, saying he was undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. He returned to the stage to play a pair of pop-up concerts in his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, during the summer of 2023, and made his first television appearance since the diagnosis in September, when he performed on the first-ever People’s Choice Country Awards, in which he received the Country Icon award.
At the time, he offered an update on his condition, saying, “I’ve walked through some dark hallways. Co-pilot of the Almighty. But I feel pretty good, you know? One has good days and bad days. It’s kind of a roller coaster. I feel much better than last year at this time… I have always traveled with a prayer. As long as I have Him with me, I’m fine. One just has to not give in. No choice”.
That night, the singer brought many tears when he sang the moving “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” a song about a man facing death, which he had written for the film The Mule de Clint Eastwood.
The 6-foot-3 artist, born July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma, worked in the oil industry and played in the USFL football league before turning to music. Keith busked on Nashville’s Music Row in an attempt to break through, handing out demos to no avail and vowing to sign a contract before he turned 30 or quit the business. His big break came shortly after, when a flight attendant handed Keith’s demo tape to Mercury Records executive Harold Shedd, who signed him to the label.
The self-titled debut on Mercury in 1993 included traditional country songs like “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action.”
Keith, who wrote or co-wrote many of his songs and reached the top of the charts with “Cowboy,” which became one of the most played country songs of the decade.
His following albums, Boomtown from 1994 and Blue Moon in 1996, they continued their streak of success with No. 1 hits on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard “Who’s That Man”, “Big Ol’ Truck” (No. 15), “Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine on You?” (No. 2) y “Me Too” (No. 1).
Their fourth and final album on Mercury, Dream Walkin’continued his career on the list of Billboard Country Songs with another series of songs in the top 10, including “We Were in Love” (No. 2), “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” (No. 2) and the album’s title track ( No. 5). She moved to Dreamworks Records in 1999 to How Do You Like Me Now?whose title track spent five weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and became her first song on the pop charts when it reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. She followed up with Pull My Chain in 2001, which spawned three more country songs that topped the charts. charts: “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight”, “I Wanna Talk About Me” y “My List”.
In a city where artists often rely on professional songwriters to help hone their voices, Keith was proud to write or co-write many of his own songs and told Billboard in 2018: “I wanted to be better at it and I wanted to write the best songs I could write. So if I hadn’t gotten a record deal and had some success, I would have still been releasing songs. God forbid, if something happened to you and you couldn’t sing or act anymore, you could still write songs.”
The singer won best male vocalist and album of the year awards from the Academy of Country Music in 2001, and the following year, his duet with hero Willie Nelson, “Beer for My Horses,” from the album Unleashed In 2003, it reached No. 22 on the Hot 100, marking Keith’s highest-charting pop single to date. Despite the amusing title (which in Spanish means “Beer for my horses”), the lyrics written by Keith and his frequent collaborator Scotty Emerick hinted at a dark side of the American dream, with images of people being shot and abused, someone blowing up a building and stealing a car.
Following the death of his father, a Navy veteran, in a car accident in 2001 and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Keith channeled his anger and emotion into the controversial hit “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue ( The Angry American)”, from his album Unleashed 2022. The jingoistic song reached No. 1 on the Country Songs and Singles chart and No. 25 on the Hot 100, and became a staple of Keith’s shows thanks to the lyrics “Justice will be done and The battle will rage / This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage / And you’ll regret messing with the United States of America / ‘Cause we’ll kick your ass / It’s the American way.”
Across 19 albums, Keith repeatedly addressed themes of American life and symbolism in songs such as “American Soldier” and “Made in America,” and was a vocal and frequent supporter of American troops, undertaking 11 tours. of the USO to play for soldiers overseas. He also mixed and recorded love songs and many lighter, happier drinking anthems, including “I Love This Bar,” “Whiskey Girl,” “I Like Girls That Drink Beer,” “Get Drunk and Be Somebody,” and one of his most enduring, “Red Solo Cup,” which gave him his biggest hit on the Hot 100, reaching No. 15.
In addition to his long musical career, Keith also dabbled in acting, appearing in Ford truck commercials and starring in the 2005 film Broken Bridges as country failure Bo Price, as well as in Beer for My Horses from 2008, which he wrote and starred in. The enterprising singer also lent his name to a chain of Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill restaurants, with establishments from Oklahoma to New York, Michigan, Las Vegas, Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Cincinnati and several other states.
Keith was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021, and received the ACM Merle Haggard Spirit Award in 2020, as well as the National Medal of Arts in 2021. As a testament to his prodigious songwriting skills (he had 52 top 10 hits and 32 No. 1 hits), Keith released a 13-song collection titled 100% Songwriter in November, which includes some of his biggest hits, and played his last shows in Las Vegas in December.
“Toby Keith was big, bold and never bowed or slowed down for anyone,” Kyle Young, executive director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement. “His story is distinctly American: a rugged former oil worker who carved out his own space in country music with a sinewy voice and an unwavering will to succeed. He wrote revolutionary songs and then formed his own record label when he felt neglected by Nashville. He liked being an outsider and doing things his own way. Proudly patriotic, he didn’t care if his clear convictions irritated him. For three decades, he reflected the defiant force of country music fans. His memory will continue with his head held high.”