Toby Keith’s last concerts were three nights at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, on December 10, 11 and 14. He died less than two months later, on February 5, 2024, at 62.
A statement on his official website said he passed “peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family.” Billboard described a battle with stomach cancer that began with a diagnosis in 2021. He told fans about it a year later and said he was undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.
He returned to the road in summer 2023 for a pair of pop-up gigs in Norman, Oklahoma, his hometown. In September he made his first television appearance since the diagnosis at the first People’s Choice Country Awards, where he received the Country Icon award and sang “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” a song about a man facing death that he wrote for Clint Eastwood’s film The Mule. “I’ve walked some dark hallways,” he said that night. “Almighty’s riding shotgun.”
A late start in Nashville
Born Toby Keith Covel on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma, he worked in the oil industry and played in the USFL before turning to music. In Nashville he busked on Music Row and handed out demos to no effect. He had promised himself a contract before he turned 30 or he would quit. Then a flight attendant passed his demo to Mercury Records executive Harold Shedd, who signed him.
His 1993 self-titled debut included “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” a chart-topper straight out of the gate and one of the most played country songs of the decade. Two more Mercury albums, “Boomtown” and “Blue Moon,” kept him on the charts with “Who’s That Man” and “Me Too,” both No. 1. In 1999 he moved to DreamWorks Records. The title track of “How Do You Like Me Now?” spent five weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and reached No. 31 on the Hot 100, his first pop-charting song. “Pull My Chain” followed in 2001 with three country chart-toppers: “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight,” “I Wanna Talk About Me” and “My List.”
He wrote or co-wrote many of his songs, which set him apart in a town that leans on professional writers. “I wanted to be better at it and I wanted to write the best songs I could write,” he told Billboard in 2018.
Flag-waving and bar anthems
The death of his father, a Navy veteran, in a traffic accident in 2001, followed by the September 11 attacks, fed “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” Billboard called it jingoistic. It reached No. 1 on the country singles chart and No. 25 on the Hot 100, and it became a staple of his shows. “Beer for My Horses,” his duet with Willie Nelson, peaked at No. 22 on the Hot 100.
Across 19 albums he returned to American themes and went on 11 USO tours to play for troops overseas. The drinking songs were just as durable. “Red Solo Cup” reached No. 15 on the Hot 100, his best showing there. He appeared in Ford truck commercials and acted in “Broken Bridges” and “Beer for My Horses,” and lent his name to a chain of I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 2015 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2021 as well. His count: 52 top 10 hits and 32 No. 1s.
Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, called him “big, brash, and never bowed down or slowed down for anyone.” He added that Keith “relished being an outsider and doing things his way.”
Sources
- Country Icon Toby Keith Dies at 62 After Stomach Cancer Battle
- Toby Keith dead at 62: Country singer passed surrounded by his family
