America woke up today to the news that country music star Toby Keith, 62, had finally lost his long-running battle with stomach cancer. The singer passed away Monday evening surrounded by his family.

“He fought his life with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time,” a statement on his website and social media read.

A native Oklahoman, Keith first found music stardom with his first hit, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” in 1993 and maintained a strong following for the next 30 years until his passing. He recorded 20 No. 1 country music hits. Keith was an unabashed patriot, supported the military and loved his country as heard in some of his top hits including “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” following the attacks on 9/11, “American Soldier,” “Happy Birthday America,” “Made in America” and others.

In addition to his songs about the military and recalling his veteran father, Keith was honored in 2014 with a Spirit of the USO Award by the USO for his unwavering commitment in playing more than 300 shows beginning in 2002 and up to that time in countries ranging including Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Djibouti, Guam, Kyrgyzstan and others. He was also a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, presented to him by President Donald Trump in 2021.

Other top hits included “How Do You Like Me Now,” “Red Solo Cup,” “As Good as I Once Was,” “I Wanna Talk About Me,” and many others. He was a great showman and always seemed to have a great time, whether on stage or hanging with fans or friends.

Toby Keith Outdoorsman

Keith was a passionate outdoorsman, who loved fishing and hunting, though he was known more for his fishing—both saltwater and freshwater. In fact, he loved it so much, he bought a tackle company, Luck E Strike, last year.

Toby Keith posted this photo on Facebook in 2018 following a duck hunt with his wife, Tricia.

And it was on a pheasant hunting trip with some buddies back in the 1990s where the idea for his first big hit, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was born.

As Keith told a reporter in a Los Angeles Daily News article in 2018 to commemorate the 25th year of the hit song, they were in a country bar after a day of hunting and one of the members of his group, a highway patrolman, asked a girl in the bar to dance. The girl shot him down.

“She guns him down and everyone makes fun of the poor guy and he comes back to the table and a young, guy about half his age, swoops in and takes her to the floor,” Keith was quoted as saying. “One of them turned and said ‘John, you should’ve been a cowboy.’ I thought, well, I have to write that.”

According to Keith, after they left the bar he headed to his hotel room, and in about 20 minutes, wrote the lyrics for the song that would become his first big hit.

Toby Keith & Guns

As a hunter, Keith was obviously a gun owner and fond of shooting. A reporter once tried to corner him on the topic of more gun laws following the tragic racially motivated shooting of churchgoers in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015, in which Keith replied more laws were not the answer.

“If it can happen in church, it can happen anywhere, so there’s no answer to it,” Keith told the reporter. He then pointed out how countries with strict gun laws still have mass shootings and violence.

But Keith famously ran afoul of the firearms community in 2013 when a restaurant in Woodbridge, Virginia, that bore his name, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, hung a “No Guns Permitted” sign at its front door. Keith took flak from gun owners and 2A supporters on his Facebook page at the time, though the restaurant only licensed his name and Keith had no ownership stake in any of the establishments nor had any say in how the restaurants were run. He merely collected royalties for allowing them to use his name and the name of his hit song, “I Love This Bar.”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

68 COMMENTS

  3. Wife and I met him once, seemed like a nice enough guy. My wife said she was going to ask him over to our table, I thought she was joking but she calls out “Hey Toby, come on over.” Sat down with us and talked for maybe 30 minutes, and then he paid for our dinner.

    • Not a country music fan but Toby I knew of. A true patriot & good guy. RIP Eff you trolls🙄

    • “Who’s yo Daddy” and “Hope on the Rocks” along with “I’m as Good Once as I Ever Was” are really great songs all containing truths.

    • I will say the same when biden dies. Hopefully soon.

      He’s destroyed the hopes of all but the wealthy few in this country.

    • A few years back, there was some suspicious shenanigans going on behind the curtain here at TTAG, to the point where multiple people here were eventually convinced a rogue admin was secretly doing the trolling, while the rest of the staff (and Dan) denied knowledge.

      I hope the new owners here don’t upset the moderation apple cart again.

      • Honestly have no clue what you’re even talking about I Haz A Question. We barely have time to follow the comments much less try to troll people through them. A rogue admin. I love the conspiracy theories though. Funny stuff. But no sir, you can sleep easy, we’re not trying to manipulate the conversations. Again, just ask that people try to stay halfway civil with each other. Thanks for being a vital part of the community.

      • Haz, I seriously doubt the current management keeps up on the moderation folder as well as previous management did.

        It seemed the past crew cleared comments several times a day while the new gang may do it once or maybe twice if we’re lucky, with lengthy hours needing to take place in between…

        We just get get to live with the new reality… 🙁

        • We are going through the pending folder several times per day to make manual approvals, and at the same time tagging any spam comments that got through.

    • Nah man, that comment was removed, and you’ve never been moderated, at least not since Jan. 1, no idea what all happened before that, unless it was something that got caught up in the usual filters. And as far as comments, I think we’ve posted before, but you can say what you think and like or don’t like, just keep it halfway clean and civil. We appreciate you former water walker.

      • The Truth About Free Speech…I do not celebrate jsled’s whatever it was trash talk being removed. I prefer kicking his behind with a suitable reply. In other words…There is a ripple effect on Free Speech when you Eds remove a commit whether it was good, bad or ugly.

        • It’s their sandbox, and they get to clean it as they see fit…

        • Hey, debs, in the UAE recently, they had an international SWAT competition, and Chile sent their finest, an all-female team. (Since women can do ANYTHING men can do.)

          This part of the obstacle course was a simple zip-line that should have taken a few seconds to clear.

          The video is over 6 min long… *snicker* 😉

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140cLbz1mHg&t=291s

        • geoiff…I can see you in tights doing a floor routine in gymnastics…You score twinkle toes is a minus 0.

        • “It’s their sandbox, and they get to clean it as they see fit…”

          Entirely true. Just a shame that it creates a high attrition rate for regulars.

          The fact that they allow trolls but moderate the comments where I don’t even swear for periods of time long enough that it entirely derails a conversation has, over time, lowered TTAG on my list of sites to bother visiting regularly.

          I can say “FUCK!” and that’s fine, apparently, but an actual thoughtful comment gets hung up long enough that it’s not worth making and I’m well past playing with the stupid filters to figure out what trips them.

          It is fun to watch some of the troll try to repeat-post though and mark the posts as they do it. That’s some impressive dedication to being an asshole.

        • “This part of the obstacle course was a simple zip-line that should have taken a few seconds to clear.”

          Obviously, they were using the Uvalde training plan … group up and do nothing effective for the problem.

        • “That’s some impressive dedication to being an asshole.”

          Anything worth doing, is worth doing well. I admire dacien’s and Miner49er’s bravery in standing up to speak truth to power. Their voices are an important counterpoint to the group-think that often pervades these discussion groups.

        • Bravery? Now that’s funny. You forgot stunning.

          If you actually read their comments, then you would understand that most of Miner’s comments aren’t counterpoints. They’re usually either a straw man argument or off-topic dunking on Republicans or Christians. Can you say bigot?

          Lil’d’s comments are no longer worth reading. If you’ve read four or five of them, then you’ve read them all. They’re both great at copying and pasting. They seem incapable of thinking for themselves. They’re devout followers.

          For a bunch of “group-thinkers” people here sure do disagree with each other a lot. I’ve had disagreements with pretty much every regular commenter on here.

        • “I’ve had disagreements with pretty much every regular commenter on here.”

          Well, Dude, that would happen a lot less if you’d simply stop being wrong all the damn time.

          [Yes, for you uninitiated, that’s a joke. Unwad your reflexively bunched panties.]

      • Maybe, but you have to admit your automated moderation filters (robots) are seriously defective. Currently, we can’t discuss the fact that a person needs to c**k the hammer of a single-action revolver, because the filters think c**king the hammer is obscene. Do we have to say instead that the user must “rooster the hammer” and talk about “roostering the hammer” of a single-action gunm? (Also, please allow us to say g*n instead of gunm without putting spammy links on the word g*n).
        We can never use the words s**ialist or c**munist without being moderated by the robots. And as I found out today, we can’t say there’s something h**ucinogenic in the water Massachusetts legislators are drinking, or we get moderated by the robots.

        • I just double checked and didn’t see the words cock, gun, socialist, or communist in the list. Hallucinogenic I also did not see, but a good % of the spam comments are from websites purporting to sell drugs, so there are several related to that. Writing this as a test comment.

        • Justin,
          Tell me why my previous comment is stuck in moderation.
          I know why. It’s because I properly spelled so_shall_list.

          This apparently means there are trigger words that aren’t on your “list.” That seems underhanded.

          Previous comment:
          Dude February 7, 2024 At 12:45
          Your comment is awaiting moderation

        • Now both of my comments disappeared.

          Justin, I properly spelled so_shall_list, and it went to moderation. Your list is wrong. Maybe you should ask about that.

        • You are correct, the comment was sent to moderation (as was one of mine when not logged in as an administrator for testing). Those words are not on the spam list, so it’s presumably some other plugin. Like I’ve stated in another comment, we are working on it. In the meantime (if you can stand to wait), feel free to use normal spelling and your comment will get manually approved.

  6. Did you look at yourself in the mirror this morning and wonder at the failure your life has become?

    You really need to understand your shortcomings.

  7. GREAT GUN CONTROL VICTORY IN CAPITALVANIA.

    Capitalvania, controlled by the gangster criminal Republicans, may not have an official Safe Storage Law but today’s verdict is sending shock waves throughout the Nation and sending a clear message to the irresponsible Hillbillies that when you leave loaded guns unattended in your home you will be held liable for the deaths and or maiming of innocent people.

    This is the first conviction of its type and long, long, overdue.

    Crumbley could get as long as 60 years in prison. Let’s hope the Judge gives Crumbley the full 60 years to make an example of her so that the Far Right know that even without Safe Storage Laws the U.S. will no longer tolerate this madness of leaving loaded firearms laying around the house when children live there. Last year 1,640 children lost their lives needlessly to gunfire which is an absolute outrage for any society that claims to be civilized.

    This is certainly a great victory for gun control in Capitalvania.

    https://news.yahoo.com/jury-deliberations-entering-2nd-day-051401101.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

    • It’s not a victory for gun control, numbnuts. It’s a victory to hold parents accountable for their children’s misdeeds.

      • to Jethro the Janitor our forum idiot.

        Ever hear of Safe Storage Laws you Moron. Until we pass them on the Federal Level we will use this precedent conviction as a legal basis to put all you irresponsible , shiftless, paranoid, Hillbillies in prison for being irresponsible turd brains when you are the direct cause of mass murders.

        Try again bird brain.

        • Good luck with that.

          “District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a federal district ruling that a Washington, D.C. law banning handguns and requiring other firearms to be stored unloaded or locked was unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds.”

        • Try again. Take a deep breath and try, just try, to think rationally for a moment. All this did was open parents up for criminal charges no matter the crime by their spawn.

          You have such a rabid hatred of guns and such a lack of common sense that you cannot see.

          But that lack of knowledge is expected from one as uneducated as yourself.

          And what is this ‘we’ shit? Does anybody anywhere in a position of power or authority even know you exist? Except maybe for your social worker. At least miner49er is a professor at MU and can use his lectern to bully people.

          What can you do?

    • darcydodo…you bozo best not leave anything laying around like car keys so some nitwit marxist like youself can go for a joy ride and run down pedestrians, etc. You should just cut your tyrannical wishful thinking and go to your neighbor’s home, barge in and and take it over…let us know how things go at the ER.

    • dacian, stop with your false narrative. even your link shows your own self agenda for trolling interpretative narrative to be false.

    • DUNDERHEAD, one decision made in a Left leaning jurisdiction? Ptt! You seem think thing in your hoplophobic outlook that the answer to every problem (even if there isn’t one) is to have some more laws. Heck this country doesn’t enforce the laws already on the books.

      A bit off topic don’t ya think? Oh, that’s right when you are parroting your hoplophobic nonsense, you don’t use the brain your God gave you.

      • Walter,

        ” , , . you don’t use the brain your God gave you.”

        Objection, Counselor, assumes facts not in evidence. First, dacian’s only “God” is Karl Marx and Leftist/fascism, and neither of those ever gave anybody ANYTHING. Second, I have never seen a comment from dacian the demented that evidenced even the SLIGHTEST hint of brains.

        You must be a generous soul, Walter!

  9. Wasn’t Toby Keith a spokesman for Wounded Warrior Project, the scandal-ridden organization that was lambasted for the lavish spending habits of its execs?

    And didn’t he perform at the National Rifle Associations’ Annual Meeting, another organization lambasted for the lavish spending of its execs?

    • Do you hate just the NRA and the Wounded Warrior Project? Or do you spread your hate elsewhere?

      • The NRA is standing in the way and does much more damage to the 2A than they have ever helped. The RKBA will be advanced when the NRA finally closes its doors. It won’t be soon enough IMHO. They won’t be missed when history looks back at their inevitable passing.

        • Absolutely. And anyone who ever endorsed, supported, or shilled on their behalf should be subject to the same disdain, wouldn’t you agree? Any association with such an organization is a reflection of one’s moral depravity — whether they be members, directors, spokespeople or celebrities.

        • Tesla, that may have been true previously but in the past 20+ years, not so. The NRA will not be closing anything, but they will be standing up for our 2nd Amendment Rights. If you recall, they are R1
          RESPONSIBLE for Heller, McDonald and Bruen.

          THAT if you are expecting perfect you are in for a rude awakening. You see, each of these organizations get their leadership from the same place as every other. The Human Race.

          I very wise man said, “Perfect is the enemy of good”.

    • Who is “This guy”, who is too frightened to make a comment using your real name?

      Is your manho, er, ‘boyhood’ so embarrassingly small and inadequate women laugh hysterically when they see it?

      Probably so. 🙂

  10. Never heard of this Toby Hillbilly until he kicked off. I guess that is because I never listen to Hillbilly music.

    • Why don’t you listen to hillbilly music? Is it because you don’t care for the genre, or is it because you want to make a political statement by shunning anything associated with rural and/or Southern culture? If so, why?

    • DUNDERHEAD, I’m not at all surprised. i am sure the only music you listen to is Wagner.

  11. HE HAD GOOD OLD TWO STEP MUSIC . I WAS COUNTRY WHEN COUNTRY WASN’T COOL
    “SHOULD HAVE BEEN A COWBOY” NAILED IT FOR ME LIVING IN BIG BEND AREA .
    COWBOY HEAVEN FOR HIM … THANKS FOR THE COUNTRY MUSIC ONLY A HICK CAN RELATE TO I GUESS .. I RATHER BE AN OLD COUNTRY HICK THAN A DARN OLD CITY SLICKER ANYTIME …

Comments are closed.