The country music world was rocked on Monday night when we found out that Toby Keith passed away after a long battle with stomach cancer. An official announcement was posted on his Twitter account saying that he was, “surrounded by family” and that “he fought his fight with grace and courage.”
Toby burst on to the scene in 1993 with his first big hit, “Shoulda Been a Cowboy”, and kept on rocking ever since. He released 20 studio albums, had 20 #1 singles, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.
Just a day before his death he posted to his Instagram a video of him from a December show with the caption, “And that’s a wrap on the weekend y’all. Back to it.” And, the country music world will never be the same.
Toby’s final TV performance was at the People’s Choice Country Awards in September where he sang “Don’t Let the Old Man In”. It was such a powerful and prophetic performance. The first lines were, “Don’t let the old man in. I wanna live me some more. Can’t leave it up to him. He’s knocking on my door.”
R.I.P. Big Dog Daddy. (Whiskey Riff)
