50 Fun Facts About Toby Keith

Toby Keith was born in 1961 in which Oklahoma town?

His birth name was Toby Keith Covel; the family later settled in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, where he played high-school football.

How old was Toby Keith when he got his first guitar?

He got hooked on music doing odd jobs at his grandmother's supper club, where he would climb onto the bandstand to play with the house band.

After high school, what job did Toby Keith work while playing bars at night?

He worked up to supervisor and sometimes had to walk out mid-concert when he was paged back to the rig; the 1982 oil bust put him out of work.

After the oil bust, Toby Keith tried out for the Oklahoma Outlaws of which pro football league?

He did not make the roster but played defensive end for the team's unofficial semi-pro farm club, the Oklahoma City Drillers, while still gigging with his band.

What was the name of the group Toby Keith formed with friends at age twenty to play Oklahoma roadhouses?

The group played roadhouses across Oklahoma and Texas for most of a decade before Keith went to Nashville on his own.

How did Toby Keith's demo tape reach the Mercury Records producer who signed him?

Keith had been busking along Music Row without success before Harold Shedd heard the tape and signed him.

Which song was Toby Keith's debut single and first No. 1 country hit in 1993?

It was released on February 12, 1993, topped the country chart that June, and was certified three-times platinum thirty years later.

The first verse of Toby Keith's 1993 debut single references which classic TV Western?

The verse nods to Marshal Dillon never settling down with Miss Kitty; the chorus name-checks singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

Toby Keith's debut single is a staple played over the PA after sporting events at which school?

The school's teams are the Cowboys, so the song is often played several times in a row as fans file out of the stadium.

Which rock star sang duet vocals and played bass on Toby Keith's 1997 cover of one of his own songs?

The cover of "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" reached No. 2, and the pair performed it together at that year's CMA Awards.

On the Beach Boys' 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, Toby Keith sang lead on which of their hits?

The Beach Boys themselves supplied the harmonies and backing vocals on the now out-of-print country tribute album.

Which Toby Keith song was Billboard's No. 1 country song of the year for 2000?

Mercury had rejected the song before Keith left the label; at DreamWorks it spent five weeks at No. 1 and became his first Top 40 pop hit.

Which underperforming single from his first DreamWorks album did Toby Keith ask to have withdrawn?

Keith said DreamWorks executives were scared of the replacement, but within five days they pulled the single and released the title track instead.

Which spoken-word Toby Keith No. 1 by Bobby Braddock was originally meant for Blake Shelton?

Shelton's label dropped it after poor audience testing, so Braddock pitched it to Keith, remembering his earlier country-rap single.

Which Toby Keith single did the Country Music Association name Single of the Year in 2002?

It was one of three straight No. 1s from the album Pull My Chain, two of which held the top spot for five weeks each.

Toby Keith said he wrote "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" in how long?

It was a response to the September 11 attacks and to his father's death that March; he originally meant it only for live shows in front of troops.

Who told Toby Keith it was his "duty as an American citizen" to record his angry post-9/11 song?

Keith had refused to record it and only sang it at concerts for military personnel until Jones talked him round.

Which news anchor did Toby Keith blame for dropping him from ABC's 2002 Fourth of July special?

Keith's retort was "Isn't he Canadian?"; ABC said the network simply did not want to open the show with an angry song.

Toby Keith's concert backdrop showed a doctored photo of Chicks singer Natalie Maines with whom?

Maines fired back at the 2003 ACM Awards with a T-shirt reading "FUTK", which she later admitted on Bill Maher's show was aimed at Keith.

Which Toby Keith duet made Willie Nelson, at 70, the oldest artist ever to top the country chart?

It spent six weeks at No. 1 in 2003 and was Nelson's first chart-topper since 1989; a Texas congressman later quoted a line from it thinking it was an old saying.

The title of Toby Keith's 2003 album, a pun on a military term, ends in "Y'all". What is the term?

All three singles from the album went to No. 1, and it also carried the live tracks "The Taliban Song" and "Weed with Willie".

Toby Keith's restaurant chain took its name from which of his No. 1 hits?

The first locations opened in 2005 in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Syracuse; the song itself later made Rolling Stone's 200 greatest country songs list.

Frank Capri, who took Toby Keith's restaurant chain nationwide, turned out to be what?

Lawsuits over the collapsed franchise left Capri and his companies owing tens of millions; he had used both Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts branded restaurants to defraud developers.

Toby Keith recorded a cover of Inez and Charlie Foxx's "Mockingbird" in 2004 as a duet with whom?

It was Krystal's first chart entry; the two also sang it at that year's CMA Awards before Keith insisted she go to college.

What label did Toby Keith found on August 31, 2005, after DreamWorks Records shut down?

It merged with Universal South in 2009 to become Show Dog-Universal, and Trace Adkins was its first post-merger signing.

Toby Keith was a founding partner in which label, whose first signing was Taylor Swift?

Ex-DreamWorks executive Scott Borchetta launched it in September 2005, and it originally shared much of its staff with Keith's own label.

A 2013 Forbes cover story called Toby Keith "Country Music's ___ man". Fill in the figure.

The article said he had earned $65 million in the previous 12 months, more than Jay-Z or Beyoncé, and at least $48 million a year for five years.

In his 2006 film debut Broken Bridges, Toby Keith played a washed-up country singer named what?

The film grossed only about $252,000 in theatres but sold over $8 million on DVD and was a CMT staple; Burt Reynolds and Kelly Preston co-starred.

Toby Keith co-wrote and starred in a 2008 comedy based on one of his duets. Who was his co-writer and co-star?

Shot around Las Vegas, New Mexico, it earned a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes; Ted Nugent played a fellow deputy named Skunk.

Which 2011 single, the only Clancy's Tavern song Toby Keith did not write, became his highest Hot 100 hit at No. 15?

Keith called it the stupidest song he had ever heard but also "freakin' awesome"; the video features Larry Bird, Roger Clemens and Ted Nugent.

In which city was the bar owned by Toby Keith's grandmother that inspired 'Clancy's Tavern'?

He had spent boyhood summers there doing odd jobs around her supper club, which is where he first fell for the musicians who came to play.

Toby Keith's 2009 single "Cryin' for Me" was a tribute to a late friend who had been what?

Keith meant to sing it at the funeral but was too emotional and performed Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" instead.

"Don't Let the Old Man In" grew out of a remark by which director, who then used it in his film The Mule?

They met at a charity golf tournament at Pebble Beach; Keith recorded the demo while sick, and the raspy vocal is what sold it.

In June 2022, Toby Keith announced he had spent six months being treated for a tumour of which organ?

He had been diagnosed at the end of 2021 and had already been through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery when he went public.

How old was Toby Keith when he died in February 2024?

Oklahoma's governor ordered flags flown at half-staff, and his last public performance had been in Las Vegas that December.

When was Toby Keith elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame?

The posthumous induction was announced in March 2024, one month after he died.

Toby Keith received the National Medal of Arts in January 2021 alongside which other musician?

President Trump presented the medals a week before leaving office; Keith had also played Trump's pre-inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 2017.

At the 2023 People's Choice awards for his genre, Toby Keith was the first recipient of which honour?

His performance that night was his first in public since announcing his diagnosis and drew a standing ovation.

Toby Keith's last studio recording, a Luke Combs duet, was on a tribute album to whom?

The pair covered "Ships That Don't Come In" for Hixtape: Vol. 3: Difftape.

The Toby Keith Foundation's OK Kids Korral in Oklahoma City provides housing for whom?

His annual golf classic has raised more than $15 million for it, and he called it his greatest accomplishment.

Which wrestler interrupted Toby Keith at the first NWA-TNA weekly pay-per-view in June 2002?

Keith later entered the Gauntlet for the Gold and eliminated Jarrett himself; he was a regular front-row fan at WWE shows in Oklahoma.

Toby Keith is the only musical artist to have received a five-star iTunes rating from which TV host?

He also played a hunter in Colbert's 2008 Christmas special.

Toby Keith sang original songs like "Truck Man" and "Look Again" in TV commercials for which automaker?

He also fronted ads for the 10-10-220 discount long-distance phone service, and drove a concept F-350 in one of his own music videos.

In his best-known patriotic song, Toby Keith sings that his father lost what in the Army?

H. K. Covel died in a 2001 collision with a charter bus; the family later won a $2.8 million wrongful-death judgment.

In October 2008, Toby Keith announced he had left which political party to register as an independent?

He had called himself "a conservative Democrat who is sometimes embarrassed for his party" and endorsed George W. Bush in 2004.

In December 2011, which fan-voted show on Fox named Toby Keith its "Artist of the Decade"?

The show ran for only a few years before it was folded.

Between 2002 and 2013, how many USO tours did Toby Keith perform for U.S. troops?

The tours visited 15 countries and three naval ships; he said he played more than 200 shows in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Toby Keith's 2017 compilation The Bus Songs held No. 1 for almost three months on which Billboard chart?

Named for late-night sessions on his tour bus, it added two new tracks including "Wacky Tobaccy", whose video features Willie Nelson.

Which WWE Diva starred as the auto mechanic in the video for Toby Keith's 2004 No. 1 "Whiskey Girl"?

It was the third and final single from Shock'n Y'all and completed the album's sweep of No. 1s.

Which position did Toby Keith play on the football team at Moore High School?

Keith's family had settled in Moore, Oklahoma, after a few years in Fort Smith, Arkansas.