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Toby Keith, the greatest singer-songwriter of No. 1 country hits like “Who’s Your Daddy?” and “Made in America” and one of the biggest stars to come out of Nashville in three decades, died Monday. He was 62 years old.
His death was announced on its official websitewhich he said he spent “peacefully” surrounded by his family.
The singer announced in the summer of 2022 that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and was being treated with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.
In a recent interview with KWTV 9 News, an Oklahoma-based television station, Keith, who hosted a series of shows in Las Vegas in December, said he was still undergoing treatment. “Cancer is a roller coaster,” he said. “You just sit here and wait for it to go away; it may never go away.” Keith said his Christian faith was helping him get through the treatment and the possible dark outcome.
Singing in a baritone that alternated declamatory and crooning, Keith cultivated a boisterous, direct personality with recordings such as “I Wanna Talk About Me” and “Beer for My Horses.”
Built around clever wordplay and playful humor (and more than a little macho braggadocio), both topped the country chart, with “Beer for My Horses,” a twangy, Rolling Stones-style rocker featuring Willie Nelson on the voice, moving to pop. 40.
Keith wrote or co-wrote most of their material, which ranged stylistically from traditional honky-tonk to pop-country ballads and southern rock. More than 60 of his singles reached the country charts, including 20 number one hits, and he sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. In 2015 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in a class with Cyndi Lauper, blues pioneer Willie Dixon and Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.
Keith was already 30 years old, having struggled for years to make it in the music business, when he signed his first record deal in 1993. He had previously worked as a rodeo ranch hand, a bully in the Oklahoma oil fields, and as a semi-professional football player for support his young family.
“I didn’t take many vacations for the first 20 years of my adult life,” Keith said in a 2018 episode of The Big Interview with Dan Rather.
“When I came out and my song came on,” he added, referring to “Should Have Been a Cowboy,” his first No. 1 country single, in 1993, “I was doing 28, 29 shows a month because I didn’t know I was going to get a second hit.” ”.
“At that point I was just trying to outwork everyone.”