Toby Keith Bio
Toby Keith was born with the name Toby Keith Covel on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Okla. The family moved to Oklahoma City when Keith was young, and it was there he became interested in the musicians who worked in his grandmother’s supper club. He
got his first guitar at age 8, but it would be years before Keith would pursue music as a career. At 6-feet-4 inches, Keith worked in the oil industry and played defensive end with the Oklahoma City Drillers United States Football League (USFL) team.
In 1984, he turned to music full time, playing the honky-tonk circuit in Oklahoma and Texas with the band Easy Money. A demo tape made the rounds in Nashville, but there were no takers. After catching a show in Oklahoma, Mercury Records President Harold Shedd signed him to Mercury Records. His 1993 debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” went to No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified platinum.
When Shedd left Mercury for Polydor Records, Keith went with him. He released a second album, Boomtown, in 1994. The gold-selling collection produced the No. 1 hit “Who’s That Man” and the Top 5 hit “You Ain’t Much Fun.” The platinum-selling Blue Moon followed in 1996, featuring introspective tunes like “Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine on You” and “Me Too.”
When Polydor closed its Nashville operation, Keith returned to Mercury Nashville, releasing Dream Walkin’ in 1997. The bittersweet ballad, “When We Were in Love,” went to No. 2, as did a cover version of rocker Sting’s divorce ode “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying.” The duet earned the unlikely pair a Grammy nomination, and Sting joined Keith for a performance on the 1997 CMA Awards telecast. Keith’s Greatest Hits, Volume I followed in 1998, although its lead […]
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