Keith, Toby (1961-2024), was a popular American country music singer and songwriter. He was known for his outspoken political lyrics and his contemporary approach to traditional honky-tonk music. Honky-tonk has a stronger beat than other types of country music. Keith recorded many number-one country hits, and his songs and albums won numerous awards.
Toby Keith Covel was born on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma. He grew up in Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City. He dropped his last name when he began performing.
Keith’s first album, Toby Keith, was released in 1993 and became a hit. Its single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” became a number-one hit. The album’s other hits included “Wish I Didn’t Know Now,” “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action,” and “He Ain’t Worth Missing.” Keith’s second album, Boomtown (1994), featured his second number-one hit, “Who’s That Man.”
Keith achieved wider recognition with his album How Do You Like Me Now?!, released in 1999. The album’s title song became a number-one country hit as well as Keith’s first top-40 pop hit. Keith’s next album, Pull My Chain (2001), became his first to top the country charts and also his first top-10 pop album. It featured the number-one singles “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight,” “I Wanna Talk About Me,” and “My List.”
In 2002, Keith attracted controversy for his song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” The song was an aggressively patriotic response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In 2009, he was named Billboard magazine’s top country artist of the decade.
Keith’s other hit songs included “Country Comes to Town” and “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This” (both 1999); “Beer for My Horses” (with the American country music singer Willie Nelson) and “Who’s Your Daddy?” (both 2002); “As Good as I Once Was” (2005); and “Made in America” and “Red Solo Cup” (both 2011). Keith died on Feb. 5, 2024.
