Career
In the early 1990s, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he hung out and busked on Music Row and at a place called Houndogs. He distributed copies of a demo tape the band had made to the many record companies in the city. There was no interest by any of the record labels, and Keith returned home feeling depressed. He had promised himself and God to have a recording contract by the time he was 30 years old or give up on music as a career. Fortunately for Keith, a flight attendant and fan of his 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 enjoyed 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 country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified platinum. Other hit singles included "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action" and "Wish I Didn't Know Now".
Keith was moved to Polydor Records and released his next album, Boomtown (1994), then was moved to A & M Records Nashville, as those two labels merged and released Blue Moon (1996). The albums went gold and platinum, respectively. In 1996, Keith was also featured on the Beach Boys' now out-of-print 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 performing a cover of their 1963 hit "Be True to Your School" with the Beach Boys themselves providing the harmonies and backing vocals.
A & M decided to fold their country division and Keith moved back to Mercury Records (now called Mercury Nashville), and released his fourth album, Dream Walkin'' (1997). The album featured a duet with Sting, "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying", which had previously been a hit for Sting himself.
The first single off How Do You Like Me Now?! failed to make the Top 40 on the country charts. However, the follow-up single, which was the album's title track, went on to spend five weeks at number one, helping boost the album's sales to double platinum.
In 2002, he released the Unleashed album which included hit singles, "Who's Your Daddy?", "Beer for My Horses", and "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue".
On November 9, 2004, Keith released a remake of James Taylor and Carly Simon's "Mockingbird", a duet with his daughter, Krystal. They performed the song on the 2004 Country Music Awards. The song reached top 25 on the charts.
Keith was the subject of the January 2005 issue of Playboy's Playboy Interview. That year, Keith toured with rock guitarist Ted Nugent, whom Keith met in Iraq while they were both performing in USO-sponsored shows for the coalition troops.
On August 31, 2005, Keith parted ways with Universal Music Group — which had since bought DreamWorks — and launched his own record label, Show Dog Nashville. Its first release was Keith's album White Trash with Money, followed by the soundtrack to Broken Bridges. Big Dog Daddy, which featured his single "High Maintenance Woman", was released on June 12, 2007. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 charts, his third album to reach this feat, after Unleashed and Shock'n Y'all.
He recorded a duet with Jimmy Buffett, "Piece of Work", which was featured on Buffett's album License to Chill.
In 2008, Keith completed his Biggest and Baddest Tour. On May 6, 2008, he released his 35 Biggest Hits 2CD set. The set was certified Platinum in August 2008.
In July 2008, Keith released a single, "She Never Cried in Front of Me". An album, That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, followed on October 28, 2008.
In 2009, Keith toured the U.S. with fellow country star Trace Adkins on a tour known as America's Toughest Tour. The concert series was kicked off on June 18, 2009 at PNC Bank Performing Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Keith did a free show earlier in the day at Asbury Park's famous Stone Pony.
On October 6, 2009, Keith's thirteenth studio album, American Ride, was released.
In 2010, Keith performed on another USO tour, this time in South Korea.
A studio album, Bullets in the Gun, was released on October 5, 2010.
on October 23, 2011, a new studio album, Clancy's Tavern was released. One of its songs, "Red Solo Cup", became a viral hit and gave Keith his biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 17.
In December 2011, Keith was named "Artist of the Decade" by the American Country Awards.
Read more about this topic: Toby Keith
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