Keith Urban Recalls Toby Keith Adjusting His Autograph

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

February 14th 10:01 AM

Keith Urban remembered his friend Toby Keith when we chatted with him recently, and he told us about when the two superstars toured together early on in their careers with Brooks & Dunn.

Keith told us of that time, “That was a wild tour; that was the ‘Neon Circus Tour’ with Brooks & Dunn. I was the opening, opening, opening act going on at four in the afternoon, playing my twenty-minute set. And then Montgomery Gentry came out and played a set, and then Toby came out and played a set, and then Kix and Ronnie came out and killed it.”

Urban says he spent a lot of time with Toby on that tour. He offered, “It was an amazing tour, and I rode on Toby’s tour bus on his 40th birthday, which was surreal. There we are, rolling down some interstate, and he gets hungry at 2 am, so we sat in a booth and ordered Steak and Shake.”

RELATED: Tim McGraw And Toby Keith: What They Shared

Keith recalled that everyone on the tour would treat locals to another show after their sets. He explained, “On that tour, we started getting into the habit when we would come off stage, we would find the local honky tonk where there was a country music band playing, and we would organize all our buses to go to that bar, and then we would get up and just take over for the house band. We would always do it unannounced, and it was all of us, including Kix and Ronnie. When they finished, we’d all end up there playing.”

He added, “It was amazing because some of the clubs would only have six people in them because everybody was at the concert. These people (in the bar) couldn’t go to the concert, so we showed up and started playing songs.”

After those shows, Toby had some fun with Urban’s autograph for fans. He told us, “People would have you signing all their shirts and stuff like that. And for whatever reason, I thought, ‘I’m just gonna sign Keith instead of both of my names so that it will cut my signing time in half.’ So I’m writing Keith on all these shirts, and then at the end of the night, I noticed these people whose shirts were signed, and it’s got more writing on it. And so I went over and looked, and Toby signed it, writing his name first but putting it right in front of mine. So he got a full signature, and I got nothing.”

Five of Toby Keith's Songs That Will Live Forever

• "Should've Been a Cowboy" (1993)

  This is his debut single and the song people will always associate with Toby. Many artists mentioned the song and its lyrics in their tribute to him after his death (2/6). Keith wrote the song himself, and it has always been his anthem. The song has received more than three million spins on country radio, making it the most-played country song of the 1990s. Over the years, the song has been a staple following sporting events at Oklahoma State University (home of the Cowboys), often played over the venue’s PA system several times in succession as fans emptied the stadium or arena.

• "How Do You Like Me Now?!" (1999)

  This song brought Keith to superstardom. Toby told me the inspiration for the song in 2000. “Initially, I said, ‘Here’s my title: ‘You Never Loved Me Before, So How Do You Like Me Now?’ It’s one of my catchphrases. A lot of people become successful after they’ve been told they won’t ever be so that people can relate to this. It can be about an old flame or a boss or a teacher -whatever it means to each individual. It was a fun song to write.”

• "I Wanna Talk About Me" (2001)

  This is another fun song and a big hit for Keith. The song was originally pitched to Blake Shelton, whose label turned it down. After recording the song, Keith said he knew he would get banged around for the song a bit. He noted, “They’re going to call it a rap, [although] there ain’t nobody doing rap who would call it a rap.”

  The music video for the song shows Toby in many different situations, including a man shopping with his girlfriend or wife, a police officer, a motorcycle rider, and a surgeon.

• "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" (2002)

  The song he wrote after the 9/11 attacks on America and was also inspired by Keith’s father’s death in March 2001. In a November 2003 interview with CBS, Keith said of writing the song: “I was so angry when we were attacked here on American soil that it leaked out of me.”

  The music video for the song features Toby performing the song, playing a red, white, and blue guitar, and showing images of his own father fighting in a war.

• "Red Solo Cup" (2011)

  Keith sure is good at fun party songs, and he proved it once again with this song, which was the only song on the album Clancy’s Tavern that he did not write. The song was written by the Warren Brothers in Nashville.

  The music video includes cameos from Jeff Dunham (and his character Bubba J), Carrot Top, Ted Nugent, Sammy Hagar, Craig Ferguson, Geoff Peterson, Roger Clemens, Eric Church, Joe Nichols, Lance Burton, and Larry Bird, among others.

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Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

Category:

• Country 102.5
• Music

Tags:

Brooks & Dunn,Keith Urban,Toby Keith