Toby Keith

Toby Keith is the reigning Academy Of Country Music Entertainer Of The Year; he was named the most successful country artist of the new century by United Stations Radio Networks; and he was 2002’s #1 concert-ticket seller in country music, according to Pollstar. His achievements in songwriting (12 of his 16 #1 hits have been self-penned), radio airplay (eight Billboard country #1’s and eight R&R country #1’s from his DreamWorks Records alone), and sales of more than 13.5 million speak for themselves.

SHOCK’N Y’ALL (DreamWorks Records), Toby’s latest offering, hit stores Nov. 4, 2003. It’s classic Toby: real, honest and heartfelt, with a dose of his trademark humor.

Like his three previous albums for DreamWorks – How Do You Like Me Now?!, Pull My Chain and Unleashed – the disc was co-produced by Toby and his longtime producing partner, DreamWorks Nashville principal executive James Stroud.

SHOCK’N Y’ALL was recorded at Shrimp Boat Sound Studio in Key West, Fla., Jimmy Buffett’s home base. “Jimmy doesn’t rent it out much, but he kindly opened it up to us,” Toby explains. (The singer-songwriter-producer was only interrupted in the studio once – when President George W. Bush invited him to an address at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., site of U.S. Central Command and headquarters of General Tommy Franks. Toby performed a short acoustic set there for the troops and their families.) Surrounded by musicians, Stroud and tropical isolation, Toby roared through recording the album.

“We were writing songs on the road, and there’s real attitude and a rockin’ edge driving this album more then anything else,” Toby explains. “There’s not an honest-to-God ballad on the whole thing.”

What there is on SHOCK’N Y’ALL are a dozen of these rockin’ tunes, including first radio track “I Love This Bar,” which is currently in the Top 5. It debuted on the R&R country chart with 103 adds and is the most-added country radio track so far in 2003. Also included are two of Toby’s infamous – and long awaited – “bus songs,” “The Taliban Song” and “Weed With Willie.” Written with Toby’s guitarist and frequent songwriting partner Scotty Emerick (a solo artist in his own right), the bus songs are humorous pieces the two concoct on the road for their own amusement. These tunes have proven to be a hugely popular part of Toby’s live set. “‘I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again,’” Toby laughs, citing the song’s chorus. “I think every time I’ve stepped on Willie’s tour bus I’ve heard someone say that.”

The album’s title is equally tongue-in-cheek. “We were looking for album titles while the war was going on,” he relates. “Then the ‘shock and awe’ campaign started, and it became such a famous phrase; I thought it would be funny to take that, add a ‘y’all’ on the end and throw a little hillbilly at ‘em.”

Toby has always had a knack for combining his oft-noted sense of humor with honest, piercing insight. On tracks like “American Soldier,” “Don’t Leave, I Think I Love You” and “Nights I Can’t Remember, Friends I’ll Never Forget,” he showcases his considerable, markedly sophisticated chops as a storyteller.

Growing up in Moore, Okla., Toby first picked up a guitar when he was eight. During stints working at the rodeo and in the oil fields, he formed a band called Easy Money to gig at local honky-tonks on weekends. When the oil industry hit a slump, he played football for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a semi-pro team, still playing with his band all along. While on the Drillers’ roster, he tried out for the Oklahoma Outlaws, of the ill-fated USFL.

When the league went under, Toby took the opportunity to focus all his passion and determination on his music career. He hit the road with Easy Money, touring the circuit exhaustively and shopping his demo until he landed a deal with Mercury Records. At Mercury, Toby released his self-titled debut and earned three #1 hits: “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” “Wish I Didn’t Know Now” and “A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action,” as well as the #5 hit “He Ain’t Worth Missing.” Toby Keith went double platinum.

Toby kept on touring and winning fans across the country. He recorded two more albums – Boomtown, which went gold, and the platinum Blue Moon – while racking up hits like “Who’s That Man,” “You Ain’t Much Fun,” “Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine On You” and “Me Too.”

Then he met James Stroud. The two recorded Dream Walkin’ together, which yielded the #1 hits “Dream Walkin’” and “We Were In Love,” as well as “I’m So Happy That I Can’t Stop Crying,” a Grammy-nominated duet with Sting that hit #2. When Toby made the difficult decision to leave his record label, he sat tight until the right opportunity came along.

That opportunity presented itself in 1999, when he signed with the Stroud-led DreamWorks label. (It’s worth noting that the ACM named Stroud Producer Of The Year in 2001 and that albums he’s produced have sold more than 50 million copies; he can also boast more than 70 #1 country singles.) That partnership has never flagged, and it has perhaps shone most brightly with Toby’s previous, and most successful, album to date, Unleashed, which went triple platinum based on #1 hits like “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American),” “Who’s Your Daddy?” and the Willie Nelson duet “Beer For My Horses.” Rolling Stone opined, “Unleashed puts the grits and gravy back into mainstream country” (Aug. 22, 2002), and the Associated Press asserted, “With his name on every song, Keith underscores his diversity as a compelling writer and singer who delivers the goods” (July 24, 2002).

“I had to work hard to get here,” Toby says of his long and steady climb to the top. “I appreciate it a lot more for all the hard work it took.” He readily admits he’s hit his stride – but not his peak. And with SHOCK’N Y’ALL, he has no intention of slowing down. “When you write your own music and have a personality people can sink their teeth into as much as your music, you can stick around for a long time,” he reflects, before adding with a grin: “That’s just what I’m planning to do.”

Toby Keith is the reigning Academy Of Country Music Entertainer Of The Year; he was named the most successful country artist of the new century by United Stations Radio Networks; and he was 2002’s #1 concert-ticket seller in country music, according to Pollstar. His achievements in songwriting (12 of his 16 #1 hits have been self-penned), radio airplay (eight Billboard country #1’s and eight R&R country #1’s from his DreamWorks Records alone), and sales of more than 13.5 million speak for themselves.

SHOCK’N Y’ALL (DreamWorks Records), Toby’s latest offering, hit stores Nov. 4, 2003. It’s classic Toby: real, honest and heartfelt, with a dose of his trademark humor.

Like his three previous albums for DreamWorks – How Do You Like Me Now?!, Pull My Chain and Unleashed – the disc was co-produced by Toby and his longtime producing partner, DreamWorks Nashville principal executive James Stroud.

SHOCK’N Y’ALL was recorded at Shrimp Boat Sound Studio in Key West, Fla., Jimmy Buffett’s home base. “Jimmy doesn’t rent it out much, but he kindly opened it up to us,” Toby explains. (The singer-songwriter-producer was only interrupted in the studio once – when President George W. Bush invited him to an address at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., site of U.S. Central Command and headquarters of General Tommy Franks. Toby performed a short acoustic set there for the troops and their families.) Surrounded by musicians, Stroud and tropical isolation, Toby roared through recording the album.

“We were writing songs on the road, and there’s real attitude and a rockin’ edge driving this album more then anything else,” Toby explains. “There’s not an honest-to-God ballad on the whole thing.”

What there is on SHOCK’N Y’ALL are a dozen of these rockin’ tunes, including first radio track “I Love This Bar,” which is currently in the Top 5. It debuted on the R&R country chart with 103 adds and is the most-added country radio track so far in 2003. Also included are two of Toby’s infamous – and long awaited – “bus songs,” “The Taliban Song” and “Weed With Willie.” Written with Toby’s guitarist and frequent songwriting partner Scotty Emerick (a solo artist in his own right), the bus songs are humorous pieces the two concoct on the road for their own amusement. These tunes have proven to be a hugely popular part of Toby’s live set. “‘I’ll never smoke weed with Willie again,’” Toby laughs, citing the song’s chorus. “I think every time I’ve stepped on Willie’s tour bus I’ve heard someone say that.”

The album’s title is equally tongue-in-cheek. “We were looking for album titles while the war was going on,” he relates. “Then the ‘shock and awe’ campaign started, and it became such a famous phrase; I thought it would be funny to take that, add a ‘y’all’ on the end and throw a little hillbilly at ‘em.”

Toby has always had a knack for combining his oft-noted sense of humor with honest, piercing insight. On tracks like “American Soldier,” “Don’t Leave, I Think I Love You” and “Nights I Can’t Remember, Friends I’ll Never Forget,” he showcases his considerable, markedly sophisticated chops as a storyteller.

Growing up in Moore, Okla., Toby first picked up a guitar when he was eight. During stints working at the rodeo and in the oil fields, he formed a band called Easy Money to gig at local honky-tonks on weekends. When the oil industry hit a slump, he played football for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a semi-pro team, still playing with his band all along. While on the Drillers’ roster, he tried out for the Oklahoma Outlaws, of the ill-fated USFL.

When the league went under, Toby took the opportunity to focus all his passion and determination on his music career. He hit the road with Easy Money, touring the circuit exhaustively and shopping his demo until he landed a deal with Mercury Records. At Mercury, Toby released his self-titled debut and earned three #1 hits: “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” “Wish I Didn’t Know Now” and “A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action,” as well as the #5 hit “He Ain’t Worth Missing.” Toby Keith went double platinum.

Toby kept on touring and winning fans across the country. He recorded two more albums – Boomtown, which went gold, and the platinum Blue Moon – while racking up hits like “Who’s That Man,” “You Ain’t Much Fun,” “Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine On You” and “Me Too.”

Then he met James Stroud. The two recorded Dream Walkin’ together, which yielded the #1 hits “Dream Walkin’” and “We Were In Love,” as well as “I’m So Happy That I Can’t Stop Crying,” a Grammy-nominated duet with Sting that hit #2. When Toby made the difficult decision to leave his record label, he sat tight until the right opportunity came along.

That opportunity presented itself in 1999, when he signed with the Stroud-led DreamWorks label. (It’s worth noting that the ACM named Stroud Producer Of The Year in 2001 and that albums he’s produced have sold more than 50 million copies; he can also boast more than 70 #1 country singles.) That partnership has never flagged, and it has perhaps shone most brightly with Toby’s previous, and most successful, album to date, Unleashed, which went triple platinum based on #1 hits like “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American),” “Who’s Your Daddy?” and the Willie Nelson duet “Beer For My Horses.” Rolling Stone opined, “Unleashed puts the grits and gravy back into mainstream country” (Aug. 22, 2002), and the Associated Press asserted, “With his name on every song, Keith underscores his diversity as a compelling writer and singer who delivers the goods” (July 24, 2002).

“I had to work hard to get here,” Toby says of his long and steady climb to the top. “I appreciate it a lot more for all the hard work it took.” He readily admits he’s hit his stride – but not his peak. And with SHOCK’N Y’ALL, he has no intention of slowing down. “When you write your own music and have a personality people can sink their teeth into as much as your music, you can stick around for a long time,” he reflects, before adding with a grin: “That’s just what I’m planning to do.”

Toby Keith spent the '90s as a solid, workmanlike country star who met with considerable chart success, yet never quite broke free of the neo-traditionalist pack to become a household name like Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson. That all changed in 2002 when he recorded "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," a response to September 11 that became one of country's most highly charged political statements since Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee." The media furor ensured that even people with no knowledge of country music still knew him as "the guy with the 'boot in the ass' song," and helped make Keith a genuine phenomenon. Yet he'd been recording for nearly a decade prior and already had several chart-topping country singles to his credit.

Keith was born Toby Keith Covel in Clinton, OK, in 1961 and grew up mostly on a farm in Moore, near the outskirts of Oklahoma City. He took up guitar at age eight, inspired by the country musicians who played at the supper club his grandmother ran. He listened to his father's Bob Wills records and fell in love with Haggard's music. He worked as a rodeo hand while in high school, and after graduation, he found work in the nearby oil fields. In the meantime, he formed the Easy Money Band and played Alabama-style country-rock in area honky tonks. After about three years, the oil industry hit a major downturn, and Keith turned to playing semipro football for a USFL farm team, even trying out (unsuccessfully) for the short-lived league's Oklahoma City franchise. Following two years as a football player, Keith decided to focus on music and adopted a much more rigorous touring schedule. He cut a few records for local indie labels, and his demo tape eventually found its way to onetime Alabama producer Harold Shedd, who helped Keith land a deal with Mercury.

Keith's self-titled debut album was released in 1993 and made him an out-of-the-box success with its chart-topping single "Should've Been a Cowboy." Three more songs from the record -- "Wish I Didn't Know Now," "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action," and "He Ain't Worth Missing" -- made the Top Five, and the album sold over two million copies. "Who's That Man," the lead single from his second album, Boomtown, was released in late 1994 and became his second number one; Boomtown hit stores in early 1995 and went gold on the strength of further Top Ten hits "Upstairs Downtown" and "You Ain't Much Fun." Keith followed it later that year with the holiday record Christmas to Christmas and returned with the proper album Blue Moon in 1996. Its first two singles, "A Woman's Touch" and "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine on You," went Top Ten, and the third, "Me Too," gave Keith his third number one, also helping the album go platinum. Released in 1997, Dream Walkin' marked his first collaboration with prolific producer James Stroud, with whom he would work regularly from then on. "We Were in Love" and the title track were both Top Five hits, as was "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying," a duet with Sting. However, Keith longed for an even bigger breakthrough, and he was growing dissatisfied with Mercury's promotional efforts. In 1999, he left the label and followed Stroud over to the Nashville division of DreamWorks.

Keith's label debut, How Do You Like Me Now?!, appeared in late 1999 and started to bring him the wider recognition he felt poised for. The title cut went to number one on the country charts and brought him his first Top 40 pop hit; its follow-up, "Country Comes to Town," went Top Five, and "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This" also hit number one. Overall, the album had a rough, brash attitude that helped give Keith a stronger identity as a performer. It was also the first to bring him those long-desired major industry awards, when in 2001 the Academy of Country Music named him Male Vocalist of the Year and named How Do You Like Me Now?! its Album of the Year. In the meantime, Keith became more visible in the mainstream media, making cameos on Touched by an Angel and in a Dukes of Hazzard TV reunion movie as well as co-starring in a series of telephone commercials. Later in 2001, his follow-up album, Pull My Chain, became his first to top the country charts and also his first Top Ten pop album. It spun off three number one singles: "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight," "I Wanna Talk About Me," and "My List."

Keith was already a burgeoning superstar when he recorded "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" in the summer of 2002. A raging response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the song struck a fierce chord with aggressively patriotic listeners, while others condemned it as knee-jerk jingoism. The whole controversy came to a head when ABC News anchor Peter Jennings objected to Keith's scheduled performance on a network Fourth of July schedule. Keith was axed from the guest list, and the ensuing media flap proved to be a publicity coup. Meanwhile, the song went to number one on the country charts and crossed over into the pop Top 25. All of this set the stage for Unleashed, which sold like hotcakes upon its release later in 2002, debuting at number one on both the country and pop charts. "Who's Your Daddy?" was a number one country hit, and the Willie Nelson duet "Beer for My Horses" also made the country Top Ten.

In 2003 Keith released Shock'n Y'All, which despite its title was chock-full of enough rough-and-rowdy hits to once again connect hugely with heartland America. Honkytonk University followed in May 2005, the same year that Mercury released Chronicles, a collection of three of his biggest albums: Toby Keith, Boomtown, and Blue Moon. After departing from Universal and longtime producer Stroud, Keith established his own company, Show Dog Nashville, and in 2006 released the label's first record, the number two hit White Trash with Money. A year later he released Big Dog Daddy, the first album to be produced by himself, and also a holiday album, A Classic Christmas. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide