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

==Biography==
===Early life and career===
Toby Keith was born in Clinton, Oklahoma. His
family moved to Moore, Oklahoma (a suburb of
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma|Oklahoma City) when Keith
was young. His grandmother owned a supper club and
Keith became interested in the musicians who came
there to play. He got his first guitar at the age
of 8. Keith attended Moore High School where he
played on the American football|football team.

Keith graduated from Moore High School and, in
1979, went to work as a derrick hand in the
booming oil fields of Oklahoma. He worked his way
up to become an operation manager. At the age of
20, he formed the Easy Money Musical band|band and
they played local Bar (establishment)|bars as he
continued to work in the oil industry. At times,
he would have to leave in the middle of a gig if
he was paged to work in the oil field.

In 1982, the oil industry in Oklahoma began a
rapid decline and Keith soon found himself
unemployed. He fell back on his football training
and played defensive end with the semi-pro
Oklahoma City Drillers while continuing to perform
with his band. (The Drillers were an unofficial
farm club of the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws; Keith
tried out for the Outlaws but did not make the
team.)  After two years with the Drillers, Keith
decided to try music full time. His family and
friends were doubtful he would succeed, but in
1984, Easy Money began playing the honky tonk
circuit in Oklahoma and Texas. The band cut a
single (music)|single titled "Blue Moon" and the
song received some airplay on local radio stations
in Oklahoma.

===Entertainment career===

In 1993, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee. He
distributed copies of a demo tape the band had
made to the many record industry|record companies
in the city. There was no interest by any of the
record labels and Keith returned home feeling
depressed. Keith had promised himself to have a
recording contract by the time he was 30 years old
or give up on music as a career. He was
approaching that age without any prospects for a
recording contract.

Fortunately for Keith, a Fan (aficionado)|fan of
his, who was a flight attendant, gave a copy of
Keith's demo tape to Harold Shedd, a Mercury
Records executive, while he was traveling on a
flight she was working. Shedd liked what he heard,
went to see Keith perform live and then signed him
to a recording contract with Mercury. His debut
single, "Should've Been a Cowboy" (1993), went to
number 1 on the Billboard magazine|Billboard
country singles chart, and his self-titled debut
album was RIAA certification|certified platinum.
Other hit singles included "A Little Less Talk And
A Lot More Action" & "Wish I Didn't Know Then".

Keith moved briefly to Polydor Records and
released his next two albums Boomtown (1994) and
Blue Moon (1996). The albums went RIAA
certification|gold and platinum respectively.
Polydor folded and Keith moved back to Mercury
Records, now called Mercury Nashville, and
released his fourth album, Dream Walkin (1997). 
Sting (Gordon Sumner) is featured on Dream Walkin'
 as additional vocals on a cover of Sting's song
I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying. 

He began work on his next album How Do You Like Me
Now (1999) at Mercury but purchased the rights to
the album and moved to Dreamworks Nashville
because of creative differences with Mercury. The
title song, "How Do You Like Me Now," was a number
1 single for 5 weeks and the album went double
platinum. 

Keith also began doing a series of television
advertising|advertisements for Telecom USA for
their discount long distance telephone service
10-10-220. Because of the ads and his latest hit
album, Keith became a superstar and household
name.

Keith was the subject of the January 2005 issue of
Playboy Magazine's Playboy Interview. Keith's 2005
plans include a tour with rock guitarist Ted
Nugent, whom Keith met in Iraq while they were
both performing in United Service
Organizations|USO-sponsored shows for the
coalition troops.

===Personal convictions and controversy=== 
On March 24, 2001, Keith’s father, H.K. Covel,
was killed in a car accident. That event and the
September 11, 2001 attacks prompted Keith to write
the song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The
Angry American)," a song about his father’s
patriotism and faith in the USA. At first, Keith
refused to record the song and only sang it live
at his concerts for military personnel. The
reaction was so strong that the Commandant of the
Marine Corps James L. Jones told Keith it was his
duty to record the song. As the lead single from
the album Unleashed (2002), "Courtesy of the Red,
White and Blue" peaked at number 1 over the
weekend of July 4.  The album spent 65 weeks on
the  top-10 Billboard Country Albums chart.

American Broadcasting Company|ABC invited Keith to
sing "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" on a
patriotic special it was producing. However, the
host of the show, newsman Peter Jennings,
requested Keith soften the lyrics of the song or
choose another song to sing. Keith refused both
requests and did not appear on the special. The
rift gave the song an extreme amount of publicity,
which led to many national interviews and public
performances of the song. Keith also had a public
feud with the Dixie Chicks over the song. The lead
singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines,
publicly stated that the song was "ignorant, and
it makes country music sound ignorant." Keith
defeated the Dixie Chicks to win Entertainer of
The Year from the Academy of Country Music (2002).

Keith considers himself "a conservative
United_States_Democratic_Party|Democrat who is
sometimes embarrassed for his party." He endorsed
the re-election of President George W. Bush in
2004 and performed at a Dallas rally on the night
before the election. Keith also endorsed Democrat
Dan Boren in his successful run in Oklahoma's 2nd
congressional district and is good friends with
Democratic Governor of New Mexico|New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson (politician)|Bill
Richardson.

==Discography==

=== Albums ===

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

=== Hit singles ===

* 1993 "Should've Been a Cowboy" #93 US
* 1997 "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" #84 US
* 2000 "Country Comes to Town" #54 US
* 2000 "How Do You Like Me Now?" #31 US
* 2000 "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like That" #32 US
* 2001 "I Wanna Talk About Me" #28 US
* 2001 "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight" #27 US
* 2002 "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The
Angry American)" #25 US
* 2002 "My List" #26 US
* 2002 "Who's Your Daddy?" #22 US
* 2003 "Beer for My Horses" (with Willie Nelson)
#23 US
* 2003 "Rock You Baby" #66 US
* 2004 "American Soldier" #28 US
* 2004 "I Love This Bar" #26 US
* 2004 "Stays in Mexico" #51 US
* 2004 "Whiskey Girl" #31 US
* 2005 "As Good As I Once Was" #28 US

The following singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard
Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart:
* 1993 "Should've Been a Cowboy"
* 1994 "Who's That Man"
* 1996 "Me Too"
* 1999 "How Do You Like Me Now?"
* 2000 "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like That"
* 2001 "I Wanna Talk About Me", "I'm Just Talkin'
About Tonight", "My List"
* 2002 "Beer for My Horses", "Courtesy of the Red,
White and Blue (The Angry American)", "Who's Your
Daddy?"
* 2004 "American Soldier", "I Love This Bar",
"Whiskey Girl"
* 2005 "As Good As I Once Was"

==Notable Awards==
*Academy of Country Music - Album of the Year
(2000) How Do You Like Me Now
*Country Music Association (CMA) - Male Vocalist
of the Year (2001)
*Academy of Country Music - Entertainer of the
Year (2002)
*Academy of Country Music - Entertainer of the
Year (2003)
*Academy of Country Music - Top Male Vocalist
(2003)
*Academy of Country Music - Album of the Year
(2003) Shock'n Y'all
*Academy of Country Music - Video of the Year
(2003) Beer For My Horses (with 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. 20, 2004.
*"Past Winners."
http://www.acmcountry.com/acm_past_winners1.htm
Academy of Country Music. Retrieved Aug. 20, 2004.
*"Toby Keith Lyrics."
http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/T/Toby-Keith.html
Toby Keith Lyrics. Retrieved Sep. 23rd, 2004.
*"Toby Keith talks some politics."
http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/story.php?templ
ate=print_a&story=5004694.

==See also==
*List of best-selling music artists