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Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961) is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Initially signed to Polydor Receords Nashville, Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin', plus a Greatest Hits package — for the label before exiting in 1998.
Signed to Dreamworks Records in 1999, Keith released his breakthrough single "How Do You Like Me Now?!" that year. This song, the title track to his 2000 album of the same name, was the Number One country song of 2000, and one of several Number One hits during his tenure on Dreamworks. His next three albums, Pull My Chain, Unleashed, and Shock'n Y'all, produced three more chart-toppers each, and were all certified multi-platinum by the RIAA. A second Greatest Hits package followed in 2004, and after that, he released Honkytonk University.
Overall, Keith has released ten studio albums, two Christmas albums, and multiple compilation albums. Since 1993, he has charted more than forty singles on the BillboardHot Country Songs charts, including fifteen Number One hits and eighteen additional Top Ten hits. His longest-lasting Number One hits are "Beer for My Horses" (2003) and "As Good as I Once Was" (2005), at six weeks apiece.
Biography
Keith was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, the son of Carolyn Joan (née Ross) and Hubert K. Covel Jr.[1][2] He has a sister, Tonni, and a brother, Tracy. His family moved to Moore, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City) when Keith was young.[2] His grandmother owned a supper club and Keith became interested in the musicians who came there to play.[2] He got his first guitar at the age of eight.[2] Keith attended Highland West Junior High and Moore High School where he played Defensive End on the football team.[2]
Keith graduated from Moore High School and, in 1979, went to work as a derrick hand in the booming oil fields of Oklahoma. He worked his way up to become an operation manager. At the age of 20, he formed the Easy Moneyband where he and his friends Scott Webb and Danny Smith and few other members played at local bars as he continued to work in the oil industry. At times, he would have to leave in the middle of a gig if he was paged to work in the oil field.
In 1982, the oil industry in Oklahoma began a rapid decline and Keith soon found himself unemployed. He fell back on his football training and played defensive end with the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers while continuing to perform with his band. (The Drillers were an unofficial farm club of the United States Football League's Oklahoma Outlaws; Keith tried out for the Outlaws but did not make the team.) After two years with the Drillers, Keith decided to dedicate himself to furthering his education. He enrolled in Villanova University planning to major in philosophy with a focus on ethics, but due to financial reasons he was unable to complete more than two semesters. He then returned to Oklahoma to focus once again on music. His family and friends were doubtful he would succeed, but in 1984, Easy Money began playing the honky tonk circuit in Oklahoma and Texas. The band cut a single titled Blue Moon and the song received some airplay on local radio stations in Oklahoma.
Also in 1984, Keith married his wife, Tricia. He is the father of three children; Shelley (born 1980), Krystal (born 1985), and Stelen (born 1997). An avid University of Oklahoma football fan, Keith is often seen at Oklahoma Sooners games and practices.
In 1998, Villanova University gave Keith an honorary degree in ethics, inspiring his 1999 single How Do You Like Me Now?!. On 24 March 2001 Keith's father was killed in a car accident on interstate 35. On 25 December 2007 the Covel family was awarded $2.8 million for the wrongful death of H.K.Covel. Elias and Pedro Rodriguez, operators of Rodriguez Transportes of Tulsa, and the Republic Western Insurance Co were found liable as they failed to properly equip the truck with properly working air brakes.
Career
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In 1993, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee. Keith hung out and busked on Music Row and at a place called Houndogs. He distributed copies of a demo tape the band had made to the many record companies in the city. There was no interest by any of the record labels and Keith returned home feeling depressed. Keith had promised himself to have a recording contract by the time he was 30 years old or give up on music as a career. He had already passed that age without any prospects for a recording contract.
Keith moved briefly to Polydor Records and released his next two albums, Boomtown (1994) and Blue Moon (1996). The albums went gold and platinum respectively. In 1996, Keith was also featured on the Beach Boys' now out-of-print 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 performing a cover of their 1963 hit Be True to Your School with the Beach Boys themselves providing the harmonies and backing vocals.
Polydor folded and Keith moved back to Mercury Records (now called Mercury Nashville), and released his fourth album, Dream Walkin' (1997). The album featured a duet with Sting, "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying", which had previously been a hit for Sting himself.
Toby Keith
Keith began work on his next album How Do You Like Me Now (1999) at Mercury but purchased the rights to the album and moved to DreamWorks Nashville because of creative differences with Mercury.[citation needed] The first single off How Do You Like Me Now failed to make the Top 40 on the country charts. However, the follow-up single, which was the album's title track, went on to spend five weeks at number one, helping boost the album's sales to double platinum.
Keith also began doing a series of television advertisements for Telecom USA for their discount long distance telephone service 10-10-220. Because of the ads and his latest hit album, Keith became a superstar and household name. He also starred in Ford commercials, singing original songs such as "Ford Truck Man" and "Field Trip (Look Again)" while driving Ford trucks.
Keith made an appearance at the very first Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (then NWA-TNA) weekly pay-per-view on June 19, 2002, where his playing of Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue was interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. He would later enter the Gauntlet for the Gold main event specifically to eliminate Jarrett from the match. He would appear the next week, on June 26, and help Scott Hall defeat Jarrett in singles action.
On November 9, 2004, Keith released a special duet with his daughter and aspiring singer, Krystal (age 19 at the time). The song, a remake of James Taylor and Carly Simon's "Mockingbird" was performed on the 2004 CMA's by the duo. The song reached top 25 on the charts.
Keith was the subject of the January, 2005 issue of Playboy Magazine's Playboy Interview. That year, Keith toured with rock guitarist Ted Nugent, whom Keith met in Iraq while they were both performing in USO-sponsored shows for the coalition troops.
On August 31, 2005, Keith parted ways with Universal Music Group- which had since bought DreamWorks- and launched his own record label called Show Dog Nashville. Its first release was Keith's album White Trash With Money, followed by the soundtrack to Broken Bridges. Big Dog Daddy, the album that birthed his single High Maintenance Woman, was released on June 12th, 2007. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 charts, his third album to reach this feat, after "Unleashed" and "Shock'n Y'all"
In the Autumn of 2005, he filmed Broken Bridges, written by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, and directed by Steven Goldmann. This feature film from Paramount/CMT Films was released on September 8, 2006. A contemporary story set in small-town Tennessee, Keith plays Bo Price, a country musician whose career has seen better times. The movie also stars Kelly Preston, Burt Reynolds, and Tess Harper.
Currently Toby Keith is doing the Bigger and Badder 2008 Tour which is still sponsored by Ford and also promotes his new movie coming out August 82008 called "Beer for My Horses".[3] Keith had finished writing the script and stars in the movie which is based on his and Willie Nelson's 2003 hit Beer for My Horses
Toby Keith was given a boost when he appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Mr. Keith holds the distinction of being the only musical artist to have received a five star rating from Stephen Colbert on I-Tunes.
On May 6, 2008, Toby Keith released his "35 Biggest Hits" 2CD set.[4] The set was certified Platinum in August of 2008.
In July 2008, Toby Keith released his new single, "She Never Cried In Front Of Me". A new album will follow October 28th, 2008.
In a January 2007 interview with Newsday, Keith was asked whether or not he supported the Iraq War. He responded with "Never did." He favors setting a time limit on the campaign. He also said, "I don't apologize for being patriotic... If there is something socially incorrect about being patriotic and supporting your troops, then they can kiss my [ass] on that, because I'm not going to budge on that at all. And that has nothing to do with politics. Politics is what's killing America."[6]
In August 2008, Keith praised Barack Obama saying, "So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat."
On March 24, 2001, Keith’s father, H.K. Covel, was killed in a car accident. That event and the September 11, 2001 attacks prompted Keith to write the song "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue", a song about his father’s patriotism and faith in the United States. At first, Keith refused to record the song and sang it only live at his concerts for military personnel. The reaction was so strong that the Commandant of the Marine CorpsJames L. Jones told Keith it was his duty as an American citizen to record the song.[7] As the lead single from the album Unleashed (2002), "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue" peaked at number one over the Fourth of July weekend.
ABC invited Keith to sing "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue" on a patriotic special it was producing. However, the host of the show, newsman Peter Jennings, requested that Keith soften the lyrics of the song or choose another song to sing.[citation needed] Keith refused both of the requests and did not appear on the special. The rift gave the song a considerable amount of publicity, which led to many national interviews and public performances of the song.
Feud with the Dixie Chicks
Keith had a public feud with the Dixie Chicks over the song "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue", as well as over comments they made about President George W. Bush on stage during a concert in London. The lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, publicly stated that Keith's song was "ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant."[8] Keith responded by belittling Maines' songwriting skills, and by displaying a backdrop at his concerts showing a doctored photo of Maines with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. On May 21, 2003, Maines wore a T-shirt with the letters FUTK on the front at the Academy of Country Music Awards.[9] While a spokesperson for the Dixie Chicks said that the acronym stood for "Friends United in Truth and Kindness," many including host Vince Gill took it to be a shot at Keith ("Fuck YouToby Keith"). In an October 2004 appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, Maines finally confessed that it was indeed a shot at Toby Keith, and that she "thought that nobody would get it."[10]
In August 2003, Keith publicly declared he was done feuding with Maines 'because he's realized there are far more important things to concentrate on'.[11] However, he continues to refuse to say Maines' name, and claims that the doctored photo was intended to express his feeling that Maines' criticism was tyrannical and a dictator-like attempt to squelch Keith's free speech.[6]
