Short Biography
The 2010 American Ride Tour ranked as one of Pollstar's top outings of the year, bringing more than a million fans to venues across the continent to see Toby Keith. The Oklahoma-based singer, songwriter and just-announced 2011 ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee has been drawing those kinds of crowds for a decade now, and with Toby Keith's Locked & Loaded Tour Presented by Ford F-Series, he'll do it again.
Keith's place as one of music's marquee entertainers is reflected in the eight nominations and two wins he's received in the ACM's most prestigious category since the turn of the millenium - 2000, 2001, 2002 (won), 2003 (won), 2004, 2005, 2009, 2011. Keith was also up for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at this month's Grammys for "Cryin' For Me," his tribute to the late Wayman Tisdale. And on this latest outing, his long association with presenting sponsor Ford F-Series continues. Toby Keith's Locked & Loaded Tour Presented by Ford F-Series begins June 30th in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Capitol Nashville recording artist Eric Church is the special guest.
More than 30 dates are already confirmed with a total of 44 US cities being scheduled, including stops in Washington, DC, Los Angeles and West Palm Beach. In addition, 12 cities in Europe will be added to the itinerary, marking Ketih's first return to the area to perform since his 2009 sold out World's Toughest Tour. Once again the Hellraiser Super Saver ticket will be offered to ensure that there is a great seat for every budget.
Toby, band and crew are preparing their critically acclaimed show that will feature nearly 1000 square feet of video screens, a giant "T" shaped ramp which will house the "Club T" party pit, an extravagant pyrotechnic display, and spiced with fresh sounds from Keith's current album Bullets In The Gun. The latest single from the album, "Somewhere Else," is Keith's favorite track on the album and impacting at radio now. The tour's June start means his legion of loyal fans will have fully savored the March 15 release of 10, a compilation of his biggest music video hits on DVD. And though a formal announcement has yet to be made, Keith's annual Spring USO Tour will also likely make an appearance on his 2011 itinerary.
Capitol Nashville's Eric Church was just named ACM's Top New Solo Vocalist and is nominated for Top New Artist. He has produced hits including "Smoke A Little Smoke," "Hell On The Heart" and "Love Your Love The Most," from his critically acclaimed sophomore album Carolina. Described by Rolling Stone as possessing "old-school songwriting craftsmanship," Church wrote or co-wrote every song. He recently graced the cover of Billboard and had his songwriting featured in People Country. Church is known for rowdy, energy-packed performances the Washington Post called "one of the most spirited live shows in country music."
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In-depth Biography
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 he produced himself, and also a holiday album, A Classic Christmas. Keith continued his steady pace over the next few years, releasing That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy in 2008, American Ride in 2009, and Bullets in the Gun in 2010. Clancy’s Tavern, which appeared in 2011, was inspired by his grandmother’s club which he visited frequently as a child. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi
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