Country music star Toby Keith has died at the age of 62. He was suffering from cancer.

Country music star Toby Keith has died, his social media sites and website announced early Tuesday. He was 62 years old.

“He passed away peacefully last night, February 5, surrounded by his family. He fought his battle with grace and courage. Please respect his family’s privacy at this time,” the statement said.

keith Announced in June 2022 whom he was treating stomach cancer Since last fall.

Multiplatinum selling singer-songwriter It was tweeted at the time that he had undergone surgery and chemotherapy and radiation over the past six months.

“So far, so good,” the Oklahoma native said. “I need time to breathe, recover and rest.

“I’m looking forward to spending this time with my family. But I’ll be meeting the fans soon. I can’t wait.”

Homage put in Tuesday following the news of Keith’s death. Country singer Zach Bryan remembered him on social media Post: “It took a lot of trips in my old man’s car to listen to Toby Keith. That’s a really hard thing to hear, rest in peace buddy, we love you.”

John Rich of country duo Big & Rich called Keith a “friend and legend”. He said, “He was a true patriot, a first-rate singer/songwriter and a larger than life person. He will be greatly missed.” wrote,

unabashed patriot

Sometimes a polarizing figure in country music, the 6-foot-4-inch-tall Keith made his mark during the country boom years of the 1990s, building an identity around his macho, pro-American swagger and writing songs such as Which fans loved to listen to. Throughout his career, he publicly clashed with other celebrities and journalists and often pushed back against record executives who wanted to cover up his troubles.

He was known for his overt patriotism on post-9/11 songs such as “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and boisterous barroom tunes such as “I Love This Bar” and “Red Solo Cup”. He had a powerful booming voice, a cheeky humor and a range that included love songs as well as drinking songs.

His 20 No. 1 Billboard hits included “How Do You Like Me Now?”, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “As Good as I Once Was,” “My List” and “Beer for My Horses.” A duet with Willie Nelson.

long road to stardom

Keith worked as a roughneck in the oil fields of Oklahoma as a young man, then played semi-pro football before beginning his career as a singer.

Keith told the Associated Press in 2001 after the success of his song “I’m Just Talking About Tonight”, “I write about life, and I sing about life, and I don’t overanalyze things. ”

Keith learned good lessons in the booming oil fields, which toughened him up, but also showed him the value of money.

“The money made was unbelievable,” Keith told The Associated Press in 1996. “I came out of high school in 1980 and they gave me a $50,000-a-year job in December 1979. I was 18 years old.”

But the domestic oil field industry collapsed and Keith did not save. “It broke us,” he said. “So I just learned. I’ve taken care of my money this time.”

He spent a few seasons as a defensive end for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a farm team in the now-defunct United States Football League. But he found steady money playing music with his own band on the Red Dirt Roadhouse Circuit in Oklahoma and Texas.

“Throughout this whole thing, the only constant thing we had was music,” he said. “But it’s hard to sit back and say, ‘I’m going to make my fortune singing music or writing music.’ I had no connections.”

comes at last

Eventually his path took him to Nashville, where he attracted the interest of Mercury Records head Harold Shedd, best known as the producer of the hit group Alabama. Shade brought them to Mercury, where they released their platinum debut record “Toby Keith” in 1993.

Their breakout hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was played 3 million times on radio stations, making it the most played country song of the 1990s.

But the label’s focus on global star Shania Twain overshadowed the rest of the roster, and Keith felt that executives were trying to push him in a pop direction.

“They were trying to make me settle and I was living a miserable life,” Keith told the AP. “Everyone was trying to mold me into something I wasn’t.”

After a series of albums that yielded hits such as “Who’s That Man” and a cover of Sting’s “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying”, Keith moved to DreamWorks Records in 1999.

That’s when his multi-week “How Do You Like Me Now?!” It became a hit and became his first song to enter the Top 40 chart. In 2001, he won Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, and said from the stage: “I’ve waited for this for a long time. Nine years!”

Songs such as “I Won’t Talk About Me”, written by Bobby Braddock about a man frustrated with a talkative partner, caught his attention due to their similarity to rap beats, which Keith rejected. He told “Billboard” magazine in 2001, “They’re going to call it a rap song, (even though) there’s no one who raps that would call it rap.”

Controversy is no stranger

Keith often wore his politics on his sleeve, especially after the terrorist attacks on American soil in 2001, and initially said he was a conservative Democrat, but later claimed he was an independent. That President George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald TrumpThe latter awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2021. His lyrics and his outspoken opinions sometimes caused him controversy, which he courted.

His 2002 song, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” contained a threat to anyone who dared to mess with America – “We’ll put a boot in your ass – that’s the American way. “Was involved.

The song was removed from the patriotic ABC Fourth of July special because producers deemed it too angry for the show. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle described Keith’s lyrics as “engaging in people’s worst instincts when they’re hurt and scared.”

There was then a feud between Keith and The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks), who became the target of Keith’s anger when singer Natalie Maines told a crowd that they were embarrassed by then-President George W. Bush. Maines had previously called Keith’s song “ignorant”.

Keith, who previously claimed that he supports the freedom of any artist to express their opinions about politics, used a doctored photo of Maines along with an image of Saddam Hussein in his concerts. , which further increased the anger among fans.

Maines responded by wearing a shirt with the letters “FUTK” on stage at the 2003 ACM Awards, which many believed was an obscene message to Keith.

He also publicly called out actor Ethan Hawke, who wrote a story in “Rolling Stone” describing an argument between Kris Kristofferson and an unnamed country star who sounded a lot like Keith. During a backstage press conference during an awards show, Keith was angry at Hawke (and reporters for repeating the story) for what he called “imaginary (expletive) lies”.

Keith, who admitted that he held a grudge, walked out of the ACM Awards in 2003 because he had been overlooked in previous categories, causing him to miss out when it was announced as Entertainer of the Year. . Vince Gill accepted on his behalf. He returned the following year and won the top awards for the second year in a row, along with top male vocalist and album of the year for “Shock ‘n Y’All”.

However, his pro-military stance was not just fodder for songs. He went on 11 USO tours to meet and play for troops serving overseas. He also helped with the upbringing Millions donated to charity during his careerThat includes building homes in Oklahoma City for children battling cancer and their families.

After DreamWorks was acquired by Universal Music Group, Keith branched out again in 2005, starting his own record label, Show Dog, with record executive Scott Borchetta, who launched his own label Big Machine at the same time.

That year he said, “Probably 75 percent of the people in this town think I’ll fail, and the other 25 percent hope I’ll fail.”

The label later became Show Dog-Universal Music and its roster featured Keith, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Josh Thompson, Clay Walker and Phil Wasser.

Her later hits include “Love Me If You Can,” “She Never Cried in Front of Me,” and “Red Solo Cup.” He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.

She was honored with the BMI Icon Award by performance rights organization BMI in November 2022, a few months after announcing her colon cancer diagnosis.

“I always felt like songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry,” Keith told the crowd of fellow singers and writers.