Toby Keith

Born Toby Keith Covel in Clinton, Oklahoma on July 8, 1961, Toby Keith was a country music singer-songwriter whose honky tonk recordings made him a solid performer in concerts and on radio and records through the 1990s and beyond. He had a series of successful albums, but he was catapulted to super-stardom following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York when he wrote and recorded a song that appealed to the patriotic heartland of America titled “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American).” He released a steady series of hit albums and singles ever since. Originally working in the oil fields of Oklahoma, Toby Keith took his songs to Nashville, Tennessee in the early '90s and won a recording contract. His debut single, “Should've Been a Cowboy,” was the first of almost two dozen number 1 hits on the Billboard Country Singles chart. His eponymous debut album was released in 1993 and he followed it up with four more until his fifth, Pull My Chain (2001), went to number 1 on the Country Music Albums chart and number 9 on the Billboard 200. He had many more number 1 albums on the Country Chart with Unleashed (2002) and Shock'n Y'all (2003) also taking the top spot on the Billboard 200. Among his compilation albums, 35 Biggest Hits topped the Country Album Chart in 2008 and went to number 2 on the Billboard 200. After the release of 35 MPH Town (2015), he didn’t return with a new studio release until 2021’s Peso in My Pocket, which included the singles “Old School,” “Happy Birthday America,” and “Oklahoma Breakdown.”  Over the course of his career, he released 21 studio albums, nearly 70 singles, and landed at the number 1 spot 20 times. Diagnosed with stomach cancer in late 2021, Toby Keith underwent treatment and didn’t make the announcement until June 2022. On February 5, 2024, Toby Keith died in his sleep at the age of 62.