‘Beer For My Horses’ singer-songwriter Toby Keith has died after battling stomach cancer

NORMAN, Okla.– NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — “Beer For My Horses” singer-songwriter Toby Keith has died. He was 62.

Keith, who suffered from stomach cancer, died peacefully on Monday surrounded by his family, according to a statement on the country singer’s website. “He fought his battle with grace and courage,” the statement said. He was diagnosed in 2022.

The 6-foot-2 singer, sometimes a polarizing figure in country music, broke out in the country boom years of the 1990s, building an identity around his macho, pro-American swagger and writing songs that fans loved to hear. During his career, he publicly clashed with other celebrities and journalists and often pushed back against record executives who wanted to smooth out his rough edges.

He was known for his overt patriotism in post-September 11 songs like “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and boisterous barroom tunes like “I Love This Bar” and “Red Solo Cup.” He had a powerful, booming voice, a wry sense of humor and a range that included both love songs and drinking songs.

Among his 20 No. 1 Billboard hits were “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “As Good As I Once Was,” “My List” and “Beer for My Horses.” a duet with Willie Nelson.

Keith worked roughshod in the oil fields of Oklahoma as a young man, then played semi-professional football before starting his career as a singer.

“I write about life, and I sing about life, and I don’t overanalyze things,” Keith told The Associated Press in 2001, after the success of his song “I’m Just Talking About Tonight.”

Keith learned good lessons in the booming oil fields, which made him stronger, but also showed him the value of money.

“The money that could be made was incredible,” Keith told The Associated Press in 1996. “I got out of high school in 1980 and they gave me this job in December 1979, $50,000 a year. I was 18 years old.”

But the domestic oilfield industry was collapsing and Keith had not bailed out. “It almost broke us,” he said. “So I just learned. This time I paid close attention to my money.”

He spent a few seasons as a defensive end for the Oklahoma City Drillers, a farm team for the now defunct United States Football League. But he consistently found money playing music with his band on the red dirt roadhouse circuit in Oklahoma and Texas.

“Throughout this whole thing, the one constant thing we had was music,” he said. “But it’s hard to sit back and say, ‘I’m going to make my fortune singing music or writing music. I had no contacts.”

Eventually his path took him to Nashville, where he caught the attention of Harold Shedd, head of Mercury Records, who was best known as the producer of the hit group Alabama. Shedd brought him to Mercury, where he released his platinum debut album ‘Toby Keith’ in 1993.

“Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” his breakthrough hit, was played 3 million times on radio stations, making it the most played country song of the 1990s.

But the label’s focus on global star Shania Twain overshadowed the rest of the roster, and Keith felt executives were trying to push him in a pop direction.

“They tried to force me to compromise, and I lived a miserable existence,” Keith told the AP. “Everyone tried to mold me into something I wasn’t.”

After a string of albums that yielded hits like ‘Who’s That Man’ and cover of Sting’s ‘I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying’, Keith moved to DreamWorks Records in 1999.

That’s when his multi-week “How Do You Like Me Now?!” took off and became his first song to cross to the Top 40 charts. In 2001, he won Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, shouting from the stage, “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Nine years!”

Songs like “I Wanna Talk About Me,” a spoken-word song written by Bobby Braddock about a man frustrated by a talkative partner, caught his attention because of their similarity to the cadence of rap, which Keith dismissed. “They’re going to call it a rap song, (even though) there’s no one who does rap who would call it rap,” he told “Billboard” magazine in 2001.

Keith often wore his politics on his sleeve, especially after the terrorist attacks on US soil in 2001, and initially said he was a conservative Democrat but later claimed he was independent. He has played at events for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the latter of which earned him a National Medal of the Arts in 2021. His songs and his blunt opinions sometimes caused him controversy, which he seemed to bring to justice.

His 2002 song, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” contained a threat – “We’ll put a boot up your ass – it’s the American way” – to anyone who dared to mess with America mess around.

That song was cut from a patriotic ABC Fourth of July special after producers deemed it too angry for the show. Singer-songwriter Steve Earle called Keith’s song “indulging people’s worst instincts at a time when they’re hurting and scared.”

Then there was the feud between Keith and The Chicks (formerly called the Dixie Chicks), who became the target of Keith’s ire when singer Natalie Maines told a crowd that they were ashamed of then-President George W. Bush. Maines had also previously called Keith’s number “ignorant.”

Keith, who had previously stated that he supported the freedom of every artist to express their views on politics, used a doctored photo of Maines with an image of Saddam Hussein during his concerts, further inflaming angry fans.

Maines responded by wearing a shirt with the letters “FUTK” onstage at the 2003 ACM Awards, which many people thought was a vulgar message to Keith.

He also publicly called out actor Ethan Hawke, who had written a story in “Rolling Stone” detailing an argument between Kris Kristofferson and an unnamed country star who looked a lot like Keith. During a backstage press conference at an awards ceremony, Keith was furious with Hawke (and reporters for repeating the story) for what he called a “fictional (expletive) lie.”

Keith, who has acknowledged he harbors grudges, left the ACM Awards early in 2003 after being snubbed in previous categories, causing him to miss the opportunity when he was announced as Entertainer of the Year. Vince Gill accepted it on his behalf. He returned the following year to win the top prize for the second year in a row, along with Top Male Vocalist and Album of the Year for ‘Shock ‘n Y’all’.

However, his pro-military stance was not just fodder for songs. He made eleven USO tours visiting and playing for troops overseas. He has also helped raise millions for charities during his career, including building a home in Oklahoma City for children and their families battling cancer.

After Universal Music Group acquired DreamWorks, Keith started over and founded his own record label Show Dog in 2005 with record executive Scott Borchetta, who simultaneously launched his own label Big Machine.

“Probably 75 percent of the people in this town think I’ll fail, and the other 25 percent hope I fail,” he said that year.

The label later became Show Dog-Universal Music and had Keith, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Josh Thompson, Clay Walker and Phil Vassar on its roster.

His later hits included ‘Love Me If You Can’, ‘She Never Cried In Front of Me’ and ‘Red Solo Cup’. In 2015 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He was honored with the BMI Icon Award by performance rights organization BMI in November 2022, a few months after announcing his stomach cancer diagnosis.

“I always felt like songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry,” Keith told the crowd of fellow singers and writers.