Toby Keith left quite a mark in country music. Keith was just 62 years old when he passed away on February 5, 2024, from stomach cancer. He would have turned 64 years old on July 8. In honor of his birthday, we are uncovering four little-known facts about the country music superstar.
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1. He almost had a career working in oil instead of country music.
Right after high school, Keith began working in the oil fields, working his way up the corporate ladder. The business was lucrative, until it wasn't. When the oil industry faced a major decline in 1982, Keith needed to make a living. He formed the Easy Money Band, while still trying to make a living in the oil fields.
Keith still hoped to make a living in oil, at least at first, which is why he would sometimes leave a show mid-set to go to work in the oil fields.
2. A flight attendant helped him get his first record deal.
If not for a flight attendant who was also a fan, Keith might have never become a household name. Famed producer Harold Shedd was on an airplane when the flight attendant recognized him, giving him a copy of one of Keith's cassette tapes. Shedd was at the time working at Mercury Records, which also became Keith's first record label.
"I listened to his tape and decided I was interested enough to go see him perform live," Shedd tells The Times-Georgian. "When I saw him, we had a meeting and I agreed to structure some kind of recording contract for him."
3. The loss of his father inspired one of his biggest songs.
In 2001, Keith's father, H.K. Covel, was tragically killed in a car accident. Covel was a veteran, with Keith quickly penning "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" in honor of his dad and his service to the country. Keith wrote it shortly after 9/11.
"I wrote ['Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue'] on the back of a Fantasy Football sheet that was laying there; I just turned it and wrote around the edges and, in about 20 minutes, wrote the lyric out and called it 'The Angry American,'" Keith says (via The Boot). "When I turned it in, they said, 'Well, it really doesn't say 'angry American' in there. Why don't you call it 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue?" So, I did."
4. He was married to Tricia Lucus for almost 40 years.
Keith and Lucus were married on March 24, 1984. They met long before Keith had any success, and was playing with his Easy Money Band at a bar.
"I was 19 and he was 20," she recalls to People. "He was just one of those larger-than-life guys, full of confidence."
It was also Lucus who encouraged her husband to pursue a career in country music, when everyone thought she was crazy.
"Dozens of people told Tricia, 'You need to go tell your old man to get a real job,' " Keith remembers. "It took a strong-hearted and loving woman to say, 'He's good enough at music that I've got to let him try. And it'll be a great shot for both of us if he can make it work.' "
"I absolutely love performing and writing songs, but being at home with my wife, Tricia, and my three kids is the best feeling of all," he adds.
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