Country music giant Toby Keith died peacefully of stomach cancer Monday in his native Oklahoma. His family was with him at his death.
Country music giant Toby Keith died peacefully of stomach cancer Monday in his native Oklahoma. He was 62. He’s survived by his wife, Tricia, and three children. His family was with him at his death.
Keith was a country megastar, scoring 20 No. 1 country hits and selling more than 40 million albums. He ran the table on country music awards. He wrote most of his own songs and was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015. His songs contain the clever wording, humor, and patriotism that account for why country music has millions of fans (include me in). One of the great song titles of all time is Keith’s “Beer for My Horses.”
Keith’s breakout hit in 1993 was “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”
(How many accountants have thought this at tax season?) More hits followed: “How Do You Like Me Now?!”; “I Wanna Talk About Me”; “I Love This Bar”; “As Good as I Once Was”; and others. One of his later hits was “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” the theme song of Clint Eastwood’s most recent movie, Cry Macho.
