Toby Keith Covel (natural July 8, 1961) is an American country music singer and songwriter.

Biography
Early life and career
Toby Keith was natural around Clinton, Oklahoma. His personal moved to Moore, Oklahoma (a suburban area of Oklahoma City) when Keith was immature. His gran owned the supper club & Keith became concerned in the musicians who came there to play. He had his foremost guitar at the age of Octonary. Keith attended Moore High School in which he played on the football team.

Keith graduated from either Moore High School &, around 1979, went to work as a derrick hand in the booming oil fields of Oklahoma. He worked his way as much as get an operation manager. At a age of Twenty, he formed a Easily Money band and they played local bars as he continued to work in the oil business. At days, he would keep around to leave in the midst of the gig if he was paged to work in the oil field.

Around 1982, the oil business around Oklahomthe began a rapid decline & Keith presently obtained himself unemployed. He fell back in his football step by step training & played defensive prevent by using a semi-semiprofessional Oklahoma City Drillers when continuing to perform by having his band. (A Drillers were an unofficial farm club of the USFL's Oklahoma Felon; Keith tried out for a Outlaws however did non produce the team.) When deuce years by having a Drillers, Keith decided to try music fully instance. His personal & friends were doubtful he would succeed, however inside 1984, Easy Money began swimming a honky tonk circuit in Oklahoma & Texas. A band cut a single titled Blue Moon and a song received a few airplay in local radio stations in Oklahoma.

Entertainment career
Within 1993, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee. He distributed copies of the demo tape the band got processed to the numbers of record companies in the city. There was there are no interest by any of the record labels and Keith returned personal feeling depressed. Keith got promised himself to have a recording contract by the time he was 30 years old or even give au courant music as a career. He was approaching that age forgoing any prospects for the recording contract.

Luckily for Keith, the fan of his, who was the flight attendant, gave a copy of Keith's demonstration tape to Harold Shedd, the Mercury Records executive, while he was traveling in the flight she was working. Shedd liked what he heard, attend view Keith perform survive and so signed him to the recording locate Mercury. His debut only, "Should've Been a Cowboy" (1993), went to number one on the Billboard country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified platinum. More hit singles involved A trifle Less Talk & Much Other Action & ''Wish I Didn't Know Then.

Keith moved briefly to Polydor Records & freed his next ii albums Boomtown (1994) and Blue Moon (1996). A albums went gold and platinum severally. Polydor folded & Keith recede to Mercury Records, nowadays known as Mercury Nashville, & freed his quaternary album, Dream Walkin' (1997). Sting (Gordon Sumner) is featured on Dream Walkin' '' when extrthe vocals in a handle of Sting's song ''I personally'm Thus Happy I personally May't Prevent Crying.

He began operate in his next album How else Do You Prefer Us Currently (1999) at Mercury but purchased a rights to the album & moved to Dreamworks Nashville because of originative differences by using Mercury. A title song How else Do You Prefer Us Nowadays'' was a benumb Unity individual for V weeks & the album went double pt.

Keith too began doing the series of television advertisements for Telecom USA for their forget about trunk call telephone service 10-10-220. Because of the ads & his latest hit album, Keith became the superstar and household title.

Keith was a subject of the January 2005 issue of Playboy Magazine's Playboy Locate. Keith's 2005 plans include the tour by having rock guitar player Ted Nugent, whom Keith met in Iraq while they were two performing within USO-sponsored shows for the coalition troops.

Personal convictions and controversy
In March 2 dozen, 2001, Keith’s father, H.K. Covel, was flushed inside the car accident. That event & a September 11, 2001 attacks prompted Keith to write the song Courtesy of A Red, White & Blue (The Angry Western), the song all about his father’s patriotism and faith in the USA. Initially, Keith refused to record a song & exclusively sang it survive at his concerts for military personnel. A reaction was then heavy that a Commandant of the Marine Corps James L. Jones told Keith it was his duty to record the song. When a lead individual from either a album Unleashed (2002), Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue peaked at number one on top a weekend of July 4. A album spent 65 weeks on the top-10 Billboard United states Albums chart.

ABC invited Keith to sing Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue in the loyal favorite it was producing. Still, a carrier of the indicate, newsperson Peter Jennings, requested Keith soften a lyrics of the song or purchase an additional song to sing. Keith refused each requests & did non come out on the favorite. the rift gave a song a considerable total of publicity, which led to many national interviews & public performances of the song. Keith as well experienced a public feud using the Dixie Chicks over a song, besides when comments it mass produced from either the stage all about President George W. Bush. A lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, publicly stated that the song was "ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant." Keith defeated a Dixie Chicks to win Entertainer of a Season from either the Academy of United states Music (2002).

Keith considers himself "a conservative Democrat who is sometimes embarrassed for his party." He endorsed a re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004 and performed at a Dallas rally on the night before the election. Keith likewise endorsed Democrat Dan Boren inside his successful run in Oklahoma's Second congressional district & is adept friends using Popular New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Discography

Albums

Toby Keith (album) (1993) #99 America, US Sales: 1,000,000 (Pt) Boomtown (1994) #46 United states of america, US Gross revenue: 500,000 (Gold) Christmas To Christmas (1995) Blue Moon (1996) #51 U.s., US Gross revenue: 1,000,000 (Pt) Dream Walkin' (1997) #107 United states, US Gross revenue: 500,000 (Gold) Greatest Hits Volume 1 (1998) #61 The states, US Gross revenue: 2,000,000 (3x Atomic number 78) How Do You Like Me Now (1999) #56 America, US Gross revenue: 1,000,000 (2x Atomic number 78) Pull My Chain (2001) #9 United states of america, US Gross sales: 2,000,000 (3x Atomic number 78) Unleashed (2002) #1 U.s.a., US Gross sales: 4,000,000 (5x Pt) 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection... (2003) #45 Usa, US Gross sales: 500,000 (Gold) ''Shock'n Y'all (2003) #1 US, US Sales: 4,000,000 (5x PLatinum) Greatest Hits Volume 2 (2004) #3 U.s., US Gross revenue: 2,000,000 (3x Atomic number 78) Honkytonk University'' (2005) #2 US (Pt)

Singles

! breadth="28" rowspan="2"| Year ! breadth="300" rowspan="2"| Title ! colspan="2"| Chart Positions ! breadth="300" rowspan="2"| Album |-

! breadth="86"| US Hot 100 ! breadth="86"| US Country |- | 1993 | "Should've Been a Cowboy" ! #93 ! - | Toby Keith |- | 1997 | "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" ! #84 ! - | Dream Walkin' |- | 2000 | "Country Comes to Town" ! #54 ! - | How else Do You Prefer Maine Today?! |- | 2000 | "How Do You Like Me Now?" ! #31 ! - | How else Do You Prefer Maine Nowadays?! |- | 2000 | "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This" ! #32 ! - | How else Do You Prefer Pine tree state Currently?! |- | 2001 | "I Wanna Talk About Me" ! #28 ! - | Pull Our Chain |- | 2001 | "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight" ! #27 ! - | Pull Our Chain |- | 2002 | "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" ! #25 ! - | Unleashed |- | 2002 | "My List" ! #26 ! - | Pull The Chain |- | 2002 | "Who's Your Daddy?" ! #22 ! - | Unleashed |- | 2003 | "Beer for My Horses" (exploit. Willie Nelson) ! #23 ! - | Unleashed |- | 2003 | "Rock You Baby" ! #66 ! - | Unleashed |- | 2004 | "I Love This Bar" ! #28 ! - | ''Shock'north Y'all |- | 2004 | "American Soldier" ! #26 ! - | Shock'north Y'all |- | 2004 | "Whiskey Girl" ! #31 ! - | Shock'north Y'all |- | 2004 | "Stays in Mexico" ! #51 ! - | Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 |- | 2005 | "As Good as I Once Was" ! #28 ! #1 | Honkytonk University |- | 2005 | "Big Blue Note" ! #89 ! #14 | Honkytonk University |}

Notable Awards
Academy of Country Music - Album of the Year (2000) How else Do You Such as Maine Now Country Music Association (CMA) - Male Vocalist of the Season (2001) Academy of United states Music - Entertainer of the Month (2002) Academy of United states Music - Entertainer of the Season (2003) Academy of United states Music - Top Male Vocalizer (2003) Academy of United states Music - Album of the Month (2003) Shock'north Y'all Academy of United states Music - Cd of the Month (2003) Beer For The Horses'' (by using Willie Nelson)

Resources
"Toby Keith." [http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/keith_toby/bio.jhtml Country Music Television Web Site (www.cmt.com)]. Retrieved Aug. Xx, 2004. "Past Winners." [http://www.acmcountry.com/acm_past_winners1.htm Academy of Country Music]. Retrieved Aug. Twenty, 2004. "Toby Keith Lyrics." [http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/T/Toby-Keith.html Toby Keith Lyrics]. Retrieved Sep. Twenty-third, 2004. "Toby Keith talks some politics." [http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/story.php?template=print_a&story=5004694].