He is a singer-songwriter born Toby Keith Covel in
Clinton, Oklahoma, and raised in Moore, Oklahoma, where his grandmother had
a supper club.He started to
gain an interest in music from hearing the acts performing at the club and
it was taken further then he was given his first guitar when he was
eight.After his high school
graduation he began work in local oil fields, progressing to the position
of Operation Manager.During
these years he formed the band Easy Money who performed at local venues but
in 1982 he found himself out of work when the oil industry went downhill
where he was.Having been an
avid footballer while at school he became a semi-pro with the Oklahoma City
Drillers and continued working with his band.1984 came around and he married his girlfriend
Tricia and decided that he was going to try his hand at making a living at
music with his band, although his friends and family were sceptical about it.They performed in venues in Texas
and Oklahoma and then went into the recording studio and cut the single
"Blue Moon".Trying his luck
in Nashville he went and gave demos of his band to record companies
situated there and also worked as a busker.It was a fruitless task and so, dejected, he returned
home. All was not lost though
as after a fan of his, who was a flight attendant, passed a demo of his to
Mercury Records Harlold Shedd things started to turn around.Harold Shedd went to see him
playing at a gig and before he knew it he received his much sought after
recording contract and was catapulted into the limelight when he hit the
No. 1 spot on the Billboard Country charts in 1993 with his first release, "Should've
Been a Cowboy".The accompanying
self-title album also shot to the top and achieved platinum status with the
further hits "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action" and "Wish I Didn't
Know".From 1994 to 1996 he
spent time recording with Polydor and then returned to Mercury.He began working on TV commercials
for Telecom USA and then later became known for singing "Field Trip (Look
Again)" and "Ford Truck Man" for Ford Truck commercials.2001 had a very personal effect on
him as his father was killed in an accident (the family would later receive
compensation) and later there was the tragedy of 9/11.These two events spurred him to
writing "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)", which
he would later record and take to the No. 1 spot in 2002.The song wasn;t without controversy
though and started a feud with The Dixie Chicks.During the war in Iraq in the mid-2000s he performed in a
USO sponsored concert for the troops, where he met and later toured with
Ted Nugent.In 2005 he
established his own Show Dog Nashville record label and began releasing
more of his own albums and the soundtrack to Broken Bridges, which
he also starred in alongside Tess Harper, Burt Reynolds and Kelly Preston.Also in 2005 he went back to his
home state and launched Toby Keith's I Live This Bar & Grill in two
cities.He has also worked
with several other artists in the business including Jimmy Buffett, Emmylou
Harris and Sting.Albums he
has appeared on and/or produced include his own Big Dog Daddy,Blue
Moon, Boomtown,Christmas to Christmas,Dream Walkin', High
Maintenance Woman, How Do You Like Me Now, She's a Hottie and White
Trash With Money as well as Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 by The
Beach Boys, License to Chill by Jimmy Buffett, Hag: The Best of...
by Merle Haggard and Outlaws & Angels by Willie Nelson &
Friends.As of today he has received
6 Academy of Country Music awards, 2 Country Music Association awards and 2
American Music Awards.He has
also achieved 16 Billboard Country chart No. 1 singles, five No. 1 albums, continues
to record and tour and is writing the script for Beer for My Horses,
which is based on the hit of the same name he had with Willie Nelson.He became the first musician to
ever be given a five-star rating by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert
Report.
