1961-2024
THE NASHVILLE RENEGADE DELIVERED CHART-TOPPING HITS-AND PLAYED ON AS HE FACED CANCER
By RACHEL DESANTIS
Toby Keith always knew how to make the most of a moment. Two years after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, the country superstar hit the stage at the 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards in September, his cherub-cheeked smile slimmer than usual below his signature cowboy hat— evidence of the toll his illness had taken. (He later joked, “Bet you thought you’d never see me in skinny jeans!” while accepting his Country Music Icon award.) With Tricia, his wife of 39 years, wiping tears from her eyes in the audience, he performed his song “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” poignantly singing: “I want to live me some more.”
Though Keith wrote the song in 2018, it held new meaning—and on Feb. 5 became an elegy for the star when he died peacefully, surrounded by family, at age 62. He faced his last days with both candor and optimism, performing three shows in Las Vegas in December and saying in his final interview that he was taking things one step at a time. “I’m not gonna let this define what my future is. It ain’t up to us,” he told Oklahoma City’s News 9 in January. “Cancer’s a roller coaster. . . . I was going through all the chemo, radiation, surgery, and I got to the point where I was comfortable with whatever happened.”
A boisterous showman who turned his concerts into celebrations, Keith took his time ascending to country superstardom. After a brief career in the oil fields, he released his debut album in 1993, which featured the breakthrough hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” In the years that followed, he established himself as a musical force, selling more than 40 million albums and notching 32 No. 1s with songs that ran the gamut from tongue-in-cheek party starters (“Red Solo Cup”) to patriotic anthems like “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” “He was a great writer, a great singer,” says former tourmate Reba McEntire. “When Toby came on the radio, you knew who that was. That’s a wonderful trait to have.”
Born Toby Keith Covel on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Okla., to dad H.K., an oil worker, and mom Joan, a homemaker, the future star grew up on a farm, working as a rodeo hand in high school and playing semipro football before turning his focus to music. The bug bit Keith at a young age: After his grandmother gave him a guitar when he was 8, he began writing songs as a teenager. “I wrote 200 to 300 songs,” he told People in 2001, “and then I wrote a good one.”
Though he paid the bills with his oil job, Keith played local bars for years, vowing to wife Tricia, whom he married in 1984, that he’d make it. “He was just one of those larger-than-life guys, full of confidence,” she told People in 2001. “He’d say, ‘Trish, one of these days, my time is coming.’ ” And come it did. “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was the most-played country song of the ’90s, and Keith also enjoyed a pop crossover with “How Do You Like Me Now?!” and the album Pull My Chain. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015, and at the time of his death Keith was among the world’s five richest country stars.
Keith was also unafraid to ruffle feathers when it came to his staunch patriotism. In 2002 the star, whose father was a Korean War vet, released “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. With lyrics like “You’ll be sorry that you messed with the U. S. of A./ ’Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way,” the song sparked controversy (and a brief feud with the Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines). Still, Keith told People in 2010 that he felt misunderstood. “My support of the troops has gotten me labeled as outspoken or a warmonger,” he said. “You get a thick skin early on in this business.”
Despite his fame, Keith prided himself on being a family man. He and Tricia shared daughters Shelley and Krystal and son Stelen, and he was a grandfather of four. When Keith was diagnosed with cancer, he credited Tricia with stepping up. “She’s been a trouper. She’s the best nurse,” he told News 9. “The first time we went to... the hospital, she stepped right in, and she just took control and said, ‘We got this. Let’s go.’ ” Though he had seven Grammy nominations and countless country awards to his name, his home life meant the most. “I was raised by good parents, and I have great kids,” he told People in 2010. “I am pretty sound in my personal life. . . . I feel known and loved.”
Reporting by JACK IRVIN