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In the last couple of years, I’ve developed a habit of scrolling through Instagram before I hit anything else online that day. I don’t do any politics or heavy stuff there, so it’s kind of my digital happy place.
On Tuesday morning, Instagram greeted me with the jarring news that modern country legend Toby Keith had succumbed to cancer.
Variety:
Toby Keith, the country singer who scored the genre’s most-played song of the ’90s with “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” died on Monday night of stomach cancer. He was 62.
The news was announced on Keith’s official website as well as his social media channels. “Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on Feb. 5, surrounded by his family,” the statement reads. “He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time.”
In June 2022, Keith revealed that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. “I’ve spent the last 6 months receiving chemo, radiation and surgery,” Keith wrote at the time. “So far, so good. I need time to breathe, recover and relax.”
Keith wasn’t too public with his cancer fight. Even though fans knew it was ongoing, people were still shocked by the news.
Toby Keith was one of the more likeable personalities in all of entertainment in the last 30 years or so. In an age when so many entertainers think of themselves as political crusaders who are here to teach the common people what’s what, one never got the feeling that Toby Keith took himself too seriously.
