Toby Keith, country music's "bad-boy" known for his gruff persona and patriotism, with multiple No. 1 hits like "Who's Your Daddy?" and "Made in America," passed away surrounded by family last Monday, Feb. 7. He was 62 years old.
On Toby Keith's Passing
The news of his death was confirmed on his official website, where an announcement said: "He fought his fight with grace and courage," and that the country icon "passed peacefully." No cause of death was mentioned.
Over a year has passed since Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer, the news of which he announced on his official Instagram account last June, where he said that he was being treated with "chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery."
In an interview with Oklahoma's local program, News 9, the country artist opened up about the state of his health. He said that he was still in treatment for the disease, saying, "You just sit here and wait on it to go away - it may not ever go away."
Keith added that he still held hope despite the ongoing treatment and possible grim outcome, citing his Christian faith as the source of his will.
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A Brief History of Toby Keith's Boisterous Career
In 1961, the artist was born in Oklahoma as Toby Keith Covel. He spent his youth living out in an all-American way, toiling in a blue-collar job as a derrick hand in oilfields.
Such experiences became the instructive "fuel" for his songwriting fervor that would later spread across the country, with the guitar-playing skills that he had honed from childhood serving as the irresistible "spark" to his music.
That said, he was also a promising football athlete in his younger years. He even had the opportunity to play with the semi-professional team of the "Oklahoma City Drillers."
After joining and playing with a honky-tonk band in the better part of the mid-1980s, Keith took on songwriting for his music and put out a demo tape that would change his life.
That same tape found its way into the front of a Mercury Records executive after a flight attendant fan of Keith's brought it to him, which consequently got the artist signed into the label.
Afterward, Keith penned and released his debut single "Should've Been a Cowboy," immediately reaching the pinnacle of the US country charts in 1993. Such a monumental milestone would only become the first of his 20 total chart-toppers across his entire career as a musician.
Keith then released his "Red, White and Blue (The Angry American" record which only lit the fire under the conservative side of his audience hotter, as it was a reactionary song made following the 911 attacks.
Not everyone in the country music space was fond of this move, however, with fellow country musicians the Chicks (known as Dixie Chicks at the time) and Natalie Maines maintaining that this kind of country music makes the genre sound "ignorant."
Either way, his fame only shot higher as he managed an almost undisturbed reign in the country charts with ten of his songs getting back-to-back No.1 spots from 2000 to 2004.
Even as he ranked lower in consequent years, he was still a country mainstay and released music in recent times with his 2021 album "Peso in My Pocket." Up until recently, Keith also made a handful of trips to the Middle East to perform for the US troops.
Today, Keith is survived by Tricia Lucus, his wife, alongside three of their children.
