Toby Keith spent the '90s as a solid, workmanlike country star who met with
considerable chart success, yet never quite broke free of the neo-traditionalist
pack to become a
household name like
Garth Brooks or
Alan Jackson. That all changed in 2002 when he recorded "Courtesy of the
Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," a response to September 11 that
became one of country's most highly charged political statements since
Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee." The media furor ensured that even
people with no knowledge of country music still knew him as "the guy with the
'boot in the ass' song," and helped make
Toby Keith a genuine phenomenon. Yet he'd been recording for nearly a decade
prior and already had several chart-topping country singles to his credit.
Toby Keith was born Toby Keith Covel in Clinton, OK, in 1961 and grew up mostly
on a farm in Moore, near the outskirts of Oklahoma City. He took up guitar at
age eight, inspired by the country musicians who played at the supper club his
grandmother ran. He listened to his father's
Bob Wills records and fell in love with
Haggard's music. He worked as a rodeo hand while in high school, and after
graduation, he found work in the nearby oil fields. In the meantime, he formed
the Easy Money Band and played
Alabama-style country-rock in area honky tonks. After about three years, the
oil industry hit a major downturn, and
Toby Keith turned to playing semipro football for a USFL farm team, even trying
out (unsuccessfully) for the short-lived league's Oklahoma City franchise.
Following two years as a football player,
Toby Keith decided to focus on music and adopted a much more rigorous touring
schedule. He cut a few records for local indie labels, and his demo tape
eventually found its way to onetime
Alabama producer Harold Shedd, who helped
Toby Keith land a deal with Mercury.
Toby Keith's self-titled debut album was released in 1993 and made him an
out-of-the-box success with its chart-topping single "Should've Been a Cowboy."
Three more songs from the record -- "Wish I Didn't Know Now," "A Little Less
Talk and a Lot More Action," and "He Ain't Worth Missing" -- made the Top Five,
and the album sold over two million copies. "Who's That Man," the lead single
from his second album, Boomtown, was released in late 1994 and became his second
number one; Boomtown hit stores in early 1995 and went gold on the strength of
further Top Ten hits "Upstairs Downtown" and "You Ain't Much Fun."
Toby Keith followed it later that year with the holiday record Christmas to
Christmas and returned with the proper album Blue Moon in 1996. Its first two
singles, "A Woman's Touch" and "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine on You," went Top
Ten, and the third, "Me Too," gave
Toby Keith his third number one, also helping the album go platinum. Released in
1997, Dream Walkin' marked his first collaboration with prolific producer
James Stroud, with whom he would work regularly from then on. "We Were in
Love" and the title track were both Top Five hits, as was "I'm So Happy I Can't
Stop Crying," a duet with
Sting. However,
Toby Keith longed for an even bigger breakthrough, and he was growing
dissatisfied with Mercury's promotional efforts. In 1999, he left the label and
followed
Stroud over to the Nashville division of DreamWorks.
Toby Keith's label debut, How Do You Like Me Now?!, appeared in late 1999 and
started to bring him the wider recognition he felt poised for. The title cut
went to number one on the country charts and brought him his first Top 40 pop
hit; its follow-up, "Country Comes to Town," went Top Five, and "You Shouldn't
Kiss Me Like This" also hit number one. Overall, the album had a rough, brash
attitude that helped give
Toby Keith a stronger identity as a performer. It was also the first to bring him
those long-desired major industry awards, when in 2001 the Academy of Country
Music named him Male Vocalist of the Year and named How Do You Like Me Now?! its
Album of the Year. In the meantime,
Toby Keith became more visible in the mainstream media, making cameos on Touched
by an Angel and in a Dukes of Hazzard TV reunion movie as well as co-starring in
a series of telephone commercials. Later in 2001, his follow-up album, Pull My
Chain, became his first to top the country charts and also his first Top Ten pop
album. It spun off three number one singles: "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight,"
"I Wanna Talk About Me," and "My List."
Toby Keith was already a burgeoning superstar when he recorded "Courtesy of the
Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" in the summer of 2002. A raging
response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the song struck a fierce chord
with aggressively patriotic listeners, while others condemned it as knee-jerk
jingoism. The whole controversy came to a head when ABC News anchor Peter
Jennings objected to
Toby Keith's scheduled performance on a network Fourth of July schedule.
Toby Keith was axed from the guest list, and the ensuing media flap proved to be
a publicity coup. Meanwhile, the song went to number one on the country charts
and crossed over into the pop Top 25. All of this set the stage for Unleashed,
which sold like hotcakes upon its release later in 2002, debuting at number one
on both the country and pop charts. "Who's Your Daddy?" was a number one country
hit, and the
Willie Nelson duet "Beer for My Horses" also made the country Top Ten.
In 2003
Toby Keith released Shock'n Y'All, which despite its title was chock-full of
enough rough-and-rowdy hits to once again connect hugely with heartland America.
Honkytonk University followed in May 2005, the same year that Mercury released
Chronicles, a collection of three of his biggest albums: Toby Keith, Boomtown,
and Blue Moon. After departing from Universal and longtime producer
Stroud,
Toby Keith established his own company, Show Dog Nashville, and in 2006 released
the label's first record, the number two hit White Trash with Money. ~ Steve
Huey, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Toby Keith for your next corporate or private event.
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