Toby Keith On His Cancer Battle and Why He's Not Afraid Anymore

it's Taste of Country Nights with Evan Paul on demand season 2 episode 44 with the one and only Toby Keith when you were you see me someone that doesn't get scared by much um when you were diagnosed with cancer did you get scared I did but that's a bridge that you've never crossed before cancer is an island in the middle of the ocean and everybody rides around they know it's over there but they go to other Islands they say away from there other people go to those islands we don't go over there so hell yeah I got scared but I ain't afraid anymore hell yeah so now you're back to not being scared of nothing John Wayne this son of a man I was kind of nervous for this Toby Keith interview it was a lot of fun hopefully you'll enjoy it as well and upcoming episodes make sure you check back in we got Shannon DOA Walker Hayes Laney Wilson Dustin Lynch Kenny chastney so many more artists are going to be coming up on Taste of Country Nights on demand part of the Town Square Media podcast Network the old man Ed The People's Choice Awards were you nervous at all no uh I was pretty weak that day though I was uh I got I don't i' had been doing really really good and I went to dinner the night for and decided I would try to have a couple glasses of wine and the next day I was really down and it it I shouldn't have done that I guess I didn't know but I got really sick and and uh almost missed rehearsal so I was really weak that night but I was on chemo and was battling and uh it was a it was it was tough but no I wasn't nervous okay and uh the response from everyone was really like overwhelming what what stood out to you about what people had to say seeing you on TV again well the wonderful part of it was when I did it for the movie three or four years ago the Eastwood's deal uh everybody at Warner Brothers wanted to They promoted with a lot of money to for you know for the Oscar for Academy Award and uh of course with the political polarization going on they're not going to let me and clan in but they promoted it anyway and then you know nobody want to play it as an oldfashioned song and and it just didn't go and then Willie cut it on his album Engle bird deine some of the old guys cut it and then some foreign Superstars cut it and uh I thought well that's what it was meant to be words to live by and that's just not the way music scene is today those old type songs and then when I got to the People's Choice rat Clark the uh producer said you know I want you to when Blake does who's your Daddy I want you to do this song and I was like that's going to be a real bummer coming out of who's your daddy and he said I know but I think it'll be a special moment the show man was he right that thing exploded um afterward people were eager to draw conclusions about why it was so emotional for you um what do you think about that and like what did you want to say about people that were assum I I think um when I wrote it I was writing it Clint Eastwood inspired it but it's like I was writing Clint's 93 still plays golf every day so when I wrote it it was like I didn't know those in the next few years that I was going to have to be looking those words Square in the face you know and and uh as much as there words to live by when you're old there just as much words to live by when you're battling a a fatal type disease that can be fatal you know so it's like um you know I never knew I never knew I was going to have to do that so I think with me being out of the Public's eye Co and fighting cancer two years and really not being uh out there going I I'm in my 30th year and I'd never taken a year off so now disappearing three years and then the word hit the street everybody knowing that what I was battling and then showing up at this deal and singing that song it just spotlighted the moment and the song so much that when I hit the stage it was like everybody was wan to see what's left you know what's he got left and so I had their attention and then you dropped that heavy hitting song on them and it was just a magical moment you know yeah it was man I mean I mean it brought me to tears man I gotta tell you man I was sitting there watching it and I and I can't even watch it now without crying brother I'm just being real man that's a good moment man I've had thousands of people tell me that emails text messages just videos facetimes uh in public face to face they're going I've had so many guys even all the girls are going to cry but I've had so many guys go dude I Bal eyes out but yeah we didn't design it for that it just things that are really really special just have to happen for a reason and uh you can't you can't plan if you knew how to pull that off every time you'd plan it that way yeah there was no planning in it I just showed up and they said here's what we want you to play and I really wasn't even thinking nothing about it going into the uh rehearsal and we get down the rehearsal and I tap my ear monitors out and rat Clark's coming up the stage balling wiping wet tears I mean and going you SOB you got me you got me I'm right on this this is going to be a great moment tonight and then I started realizing the impact it could have and I said this this this may affect a lot of people tonight and of course it did how you feeling today I feel great today um it takes a while you have to be the C your own ship and uh doctors in the medical world are just like any other profession you know and you got a lot of people on these teams doing it and you just have to dig in and get everybody in the right place get the right people and um pray for the right results and I I finally got it in a spot where I'm really comfortable with it and uh everything's trending really well right now and I'm not going to let this you know Define my rest of my life and if I live to be 100 or or I don't I'm going I'm gonna go forward and I I'm feeling good I'm off of chemo and I'm rolling so we're just going business as usual going forward uh they my video turned off I don't know if I'm trying to turn it on so I just I don't know if they're listening I'm trying to turn on but it says the okay oh wait can you try that one more time I clicked the wrong thing there um okay the next question is there we go um is your crystal is your daughter Crystal gonna record music again I don't know she's uh she's raising beautiful babies I mean just she's she's a mother she loves to sing but she loves being a mother and she's so busy with those kids they are constantly doing something and when they're asleep they sleep on top of her they're just it's like puppies around them uh a dog they just they just uh worship her and they're so busy together she keeps them so busy but she I heard her saying at an event um she still got the pipes she can go and she can write she's just um she's getting the age now where she's just like I did that that was fun you know I had her on the CMA stage with me when she was 17 and she's 35 so it's like you know what are you to do so right it's uh or she's 30 she maybe older than that yeah she's 38 but it's a it's been you know she had fun she was out there she did the radio interviews she did all the shows she wrote song she's got a song called Daddy dance with me it's one of the most downloaded wedding songs for daddies to dance with her daugh out there I know you're not g to believe me but I played that at our wedding I swear to God I swear to God we played that at our wedding you know she she wrote that and had it ready to go and uh the first dance is the groom and the bride and they danc to Elton John ballad and then it came daddy dancing all my friends are there we're in Cabo beautiful wedding and I walk out to dance with her and they go here's your surprise and she dropped it on me and I was sitting there crying I was like this is terrible you have just busted me out such a powerful song and uh there's still times when I'll hear it and uh it it it tears me up but she she nailed it and uh and she's still going she can still perform she'll get up jam with people but I don't think she's she probably won't ever till her kids are grown maybe not she she won't make it take another run at it she may write an album at some point okay what are these Vegas uh shows going to look like are they it sounds like it's going to be a party what can fans expect uh we're going to come blazing you know I don't usually need a rehearsal but being off covid and cancer I we're going to go to Nashville and do a rehearsal be first rehearsal I've done in decades but um it it'll be like riding a bike we counted them up one day we were bored and uh I think I have over 90 charted billboard singles 31 number ones and 50 something top 10 and we added them all up and I could play a four and a half hour [Laughter] show thank God I thank God I don't have to but I did a couple in July I did a couple I've got a Roadhouse here I live in Norman Oklahoma and I had um I've got an old Roadhouse out here in the country it's 997 years old that they were tearing down and I bought it cleaned it up put lights in the trees stage out back a lot of people show up when the weather's good and uh I snuck in down there one night did Friday and Saturday unannounced brought my band in I did two three hour shows well we don't have to do three hours at Vegas you know but I just wanted to go three to see if I was tired and I cruised right through it it was like riding a bike you know first night was a little bit uh do you remember all the word second night was just like let's roll so okay that rehearsal get me going and then we're going to come stomping into Vegas are you making plans for 2024 already yeah it's on the board I haven't heard any thing um all my team got together guy Bri o Connell promoted me forever my manager my agent all the powers at be um have gotten together and they said this a good time to do something really special and rise from the battlefield kind of stuff you know and so they've uh put this thing together and intricately uh beat on it for six months and said hey and they they know you know they know all the lay of the land and and things have even changed in the last three years as far as they've got a flex ticket now and all kinds of crazy stuff that going on that that they had teach to me I didn't know I was out out there never missed a year till Co and uh and so they've got a great plan together and we built a new set and we're getting the trucks and buses fired up and our plans to go forward don't let this stuff Define our future let's go I saw that uh you said you're not inspired to write very much uh new music anymore because you don't think radio will play it does that mean you won't cut any more albums no I I'll right um it's just when you get kids and grandkids and you're this is my 30th year you're just not as hungry you don't have a bottom line to hit you don't have um know you got other stuff going on your world that's way more important and you've written songs your whole life and you know the difference between a good idea and a bad idea I've written so many songs that when I'm writing for myself that I know I'm only a great idea away from a great song but it's hard to take a average idea that you might write every day like we used to you can do it but it's more difficult turn that into it so I always say it's like a guy bow hunting deer in a stand and you sat there for 20 years waiting on that one you want to hang on the wall and you'll shoot an eight-point or a 10-point all a sudden an 18-point walks by and you hang him on the wall the next year you find yourself sitting there and them 10 points are coming by and you're going hey buddy how you doing today and you let them walk by you know what I mean so when you've had five and six week number ones and and you've written courtesy red white and blue and should have been a cowboy and don't let the old man in all these things you wanted to write and and then you got an idea to write today if it doesn't stick out like those ideas you're going I don't know yeah you know I do my grandkids are coming by the see so it's like you just get so much more in your life you don't have to hit the bottom line you I don't know if it's probably complacence the wrong word but it's more you're not as hungry you're not fight you're not fighting to feed kids and make rent I gotta um you're starting to rack up icon Awards man with the BMI and the People's Choice icon what do we need to do to get you into the Hall of Fame don't ask me I don't know how that works uh I didn't uh they use a way to you die don't they don't you have don't you have to be 85 to get in there I don't know but it's a it's a I I'm in you know I'm in five hall of fames I really above all of them the uh two songwriter hall of fames and the BMI icon were the three that I mean the People's Choice is wonderful the Oklahoma Hall of fame's great and the Oklahoma Music Hall of fame's great but getting in the National songwriters Hall of Fame and the worldwide songwriters Hall of Fame I would have been a songwriter either way I would I just happened they just happened to accept wasn't up to me up to the fans but they happen to accept me as an artist so I had a vehicle to deliver all those songs Through um a lot of people in the Hall of Fame that never were really artists and uh I happen to be able to just not have to pitch my songs and record them so but they didn't know that you know I did the one the one thing I didn't want the CMAs and the music award shows all that stuff that that was just a place show up and get some uh get promoted and and and be relevant uh the one the couple things I really wanted was to someday stand up there and accept a nomination into the Hall of Fame as a song writer amen all right I got one more for you man uh uh if you could go back and re-record or change any song from your catalog which one would it be and why I can't really say I would change anything or re-record because most of those songs I wrote 90% of them and people ask me all the time what's question I get the most what's your favorite song you've ever recorded or wrote they were all like children because I know where I was they all had their own special place they were all conceived between these two ears in this melon and they were uh they're all special to me you know you think about U the big monster songs that five or six week number one yeah they were big but when I wrote them I worked just as hard on another number one like wish I didn't know now you know some of those songs shouldn't kiss me like this is that BL who's that man you know those were songs that um were number one they weren't five and six week number ones you still hear them on the radio but I know where I was why they were conceived and I know how hard I worked on so it's it's really hard to Define all that it's just a great big body of work that I was really blessed um by the almighty to be able to to have those skills hey man real quick I'm sorry I lied one more thing man when you were you see me someone that doesn't get scared by much um when you were diagnosed with cancer did you get scared I did but that's a bridge that you've never crossed before cancer is an island in the middle of the ocean and everybody rides around they know it's over there but they go to other Islands they stay away from there other people go to those islands we don't go over there and uh when you finally crash on that island there's a lot of boats over there and then you find out that half the world is Afflicted with active cancer and you go holy cow they've been working on this for centuries and um and they haven't got this puzzle put together yet and uh and I just lost an acquaintance we were playing golf in September of 21 up at The Lakehouse and my buddy had his college buddy in and we're all playing golf having a beer My Buddy goes this guy never sleeps and I didn't know him I didn't know if he'd lost weight or had any he just first time I ever met him played golf three days with a guy he had to go play in a cash tournament at Vegas when he left there got back to Oklahoma City and about two weeks later Lance called me said hey remember that guy you met up the legs he goes he he's got like two weeks to live he finally went in and got a checkup eat up with cancer and send him home Lance went and seen him and he died like 10 days later so a month later I get diagnosed and a month after that my son's fiance doesn't have a father and she asked him if I'd walk her down the a my son's wedding and I'm going well if I'm like the last guy I ain't gonna make it so hell yeah I got scared thank you man thank you for answer but I ain't afraid anymore hell yeah so now you're back to not being scared of nothing no John way John Wayne this son of a yeah that's what I'm talking about hey one time you told me that uh Solo cups never gave you any money for that song so I quit using them shits I just want you know I still don't use them well they uh they told me one time they said we got an issue I said what said we're only selling the red ones I said we'll quit making other colors [Laughter] I love it man hey thank you very much for taking the time man we truly appreciate you you're welcome brother love that car seat love that baby seat in the back man that's that's a yeah thanks man I just went to my daughter's play yeah that hey that's what you drive around town that that'll get you laid Yeah get out of here all right man you have a good all right see you buddy all right let's bring Billy Dukes in from behind the scenes go over this Toby Keith interview man what's happening man great interview here I know it was kind of a hard topic was there one thing that you wanted to know uh above all else from Toby Keith yeah I mean yeah thank you very much by the way yes that that was the big thing I wanted to know you know and uh it's it's it is hard to talk about but he he was very willing to talk about about it you know and that's kind of what he's going through right now so I was a little bit nervous I was a lot of bit nervous I was a lot of bit nervous you know I didn't know if he'd be like I don't want to talk about that anymore you know well it didn't help that your sort of situation for doing this interview was kind of not ideal um the interview time got changed so what did you you ended up doing this interview like what in like your laundry room or where were you I had to my four-year-old daughter had a Thanksgiving Stone Soup uh uh play at preschool that was um over like 7 minutes before I had to go outside to the car I had to run out uh from the church to the car and get situated in the car and so but I was constantly waiting cuz like my daughter was like right it was already over and they kept coming outside and she I was like oh my God she's gonna say something and knock on the window so yeah I was I was out in front of a preschool man I've I've been there before where you're just trying to shoehorn in something really important an interview or something in between like a kids performance or dinner time or everybody having to leave it's like a stress that like no one knows about yeah it's it's so weird cuz I'm sitting in a church watching all these little kids you know dress as turkeys and I'm like I'm like in seven minutes I'm going to be talking to Toby Keith this is crazy to me I got to run out to the parking lot and hopefully nobody bothers me you know and like it was I had to there's so many things I had to make sure that my phone and my car didn't turn on carplay and then go through Bluetooth so I had like a window halfway rolled down because I was hot sitting in the car waiting on Toby Keith and then when he was ready I was afraid to turn the car back on to roll the window up cuz I thought it would connect to Bluetooth and then it would mess everything was it was a mess Toby I wasn't sure how open he'd be to be talking about the cancer and the and the reason is is he had there hasn't really been a a wide reaching sort of explanation or getting his story you know like how did he feel when he was diagnosed um taking through some of the treatment where is he specifically at with treatment nowadays like I think these are questions that were all pretty fair to ask it wasn't too personal and he certainly could Dodge around it and you wouldn't ask a followup but I didn't feel like I felt like everybody kind of we just got like little sips of how he's doing so you couldn't get a full picture of it um but what you were able to I think get the first really full picture of how Toby's doing and like the whole cancer Journey for him yeah yeah I mean it was um it was weird because at the end I was like I'm glad I dove back in cuz I was like ah man I forgot like this one thing and you know a lot of people don't realize like I mean I was just telling you kind of what happens behind the scenes but you know like my camera wasn't working and then the the label the record label was texting me but they were texting me on the phone that I was zooming on so they were like can you turn on your camera and I'm I'm like you have to turn the camera on you know so there was a lot of things that I think helped warm up uh Toby Keith to me um and I and I so I felt like I should go for it at the end and you know I think he really got candid you know and I even thought I thought it was crazy he was like joking about the car seat in the back of the car saying you know that's how you get laid I didn't know what he was talking about I'm like what is going on but it was it was very surreal man I was I was really talking to him as a fan you know the the the last question I think was the one that really tied it all together where you asked him if he was afraid when he first got diagnosed and um and how honest he was about being scared and then kind of really not just I mean I mean of course someone's going to be scared but he really explained why with his son's fiance ask him to walk him down the aisle and he wasn't sure if he would make it and like it it even against like all the other sort of I don't want to call it chess pounding but he's feels very strongly that he's going to live his life and not be sort of known as someone who just had cancer and he's going to go forward but he he was willing to admit that yeah that was not only a scary day but then coming to the acms he was he was had he was really weak that day yeah um uh and I also are you talking about the the PE The People's Choice Award deal that's right People's Choice Awards not acms yeah okay yeah yeah and and uh I I yeah I probably reason I didn't ask that that question earlier is cuz I was probably like scared too but it was the end so I was like f it I'm just going to jump in and and do that but it is interesting to hear a guy that has so many accolades you know still getting nervous and but but it was for because he was weak but you know he was coming back out after everyone everyone all eyes were on him not that they aren't always but when he came out to play that show all eyes were on him cuz nobody had seen him so to know that you know he still gets nerves from that was kind of crazy to hear did were you surprised or or did you um did you kind of interpret it the same way that he's got more or less a full tour planned for 2024 is that how you heard that I think so that's what it sounded like to me it sounded like uh he was going to do something like that you know but no new music right it didn't sound like he was into making any new music anymore yeah uh maybe an album will fall out I I thought kind of is where he was at but like I didn't get a sense that that was a high priority for him and he said as much when he was talking about how you when you have kids and grandkids and you don't have to worry about the bottom line anymore you're just not as hungry for it I believe that was exactly what he said um which is honest and 100% understandable but touring still a high priority for him yeah and then when he was talking about how he played like for three hours or something recently I was like okay yeah maybe he is maybe he is getting ready to to to go out there and do it and you know I don't know if it would be necessarily like a final tour do you think no I don't think so just based on how he's talking about like always going forward and showing that he can beat this and he's still strong like I don't think he'll put the word Final on it uh anytime soon like you know he's only 60s low 60s so like he he easily could tour for another uh 10 years maybe change the types of venues he plays I guess over the next 10 years but if he beats cancer and is able to get back to full health there's no reason to believe that he can't get back out on the road regularly I don't know he kind of I I don't know did he lose his hunger I don't know you know what I'm saying I I don't know if it if it if he really wants to I it's weird to think about but like I just put everything in baseball terms like you it's uh you know it's hard to think that Ken Griffey Jr you know was ready was going to retire when he's so good I don't know I'm not making any sense but it's hard to Fathom that he would retire being that he's such an icon but maybe he just doesn't care anymore you know when you have kids and grandkids and you start caring about other things like I don't know I feel like he's he's the kind of guy if anybody that's got an attit ude of I want to do it anymore but I don't know we'll see I that's just my prediction I what I could I could see him doing musically if he doesn't release new albums is is kind of doing like what Willie Nelson does I mean Willie Nelson releases a ton of albums and Toby used to as well but Willie Nelson a lot of his albums are sort of more themed records like he'll put out a Bluegrass record he's done several Frank Sinatra song tributes like I could see Toby paying tribute to Great songwriters or maybe doing an album of Merl Haggard covers cuz Merl haard B influence on just something like off the whim that he's like tells his label like hey this is what I want to do well he is his label oh yeah you so like he doesn't have to you know you just kind of like Willie he can kind of just go in there and make music how he wants to he probably has his own studio so there's not a lot of cost in terms of running out of Studio or anything like that and then you know it sells what it sells and just kind of scratches that itch form I I could very easily see him turnning out records like that over the next 20 years I mean I'd also like to see a duet with him and his daughter that would be sweet so he referred to the one they did um on the CMA stage and the song they did was Mockingbird you know the classic song um by you a Mocking Bird yeah that was the song they performed and he also released that song to radio at the time it wasn't a very big radio hit I I I I think if you ask a lot of people it was amongst his their least favorite um moment moment from from his catalog but um but yeah they brought him out together on the CMA stage and she was only like 17 years old I remember I I just started my radio career I was only a couple years in at that time and I was like oh there's Toby Keith's daughter she's just a couple years younger than me kind of cute you missed your shot on that one man you know who who Toby reminds me of a little bit and uh have you talked to or spent much time with Eric Church a I remember you did a phone interview with him is that the kind of the extent of it yeah I think one or two phoners I don't think I've ever met him well Toby's Persona is so intimidating yeah and you kind of get wrapped up in that but like Eric Church when you actually meet him like you realize that he's pretty generous with his time he engages with the interview he can be a little bit silly um he's not going to you like there's nothing scary about Toby Keith I figured this out once cuz I I was invited to um do a a festival interview with him once but I had to come to his bus but once I got there I was nervous as hell but he poured me like a jack of coke and I hadn't Drank in like two years but I you know when Toby Keith offers you a Jack and Coke I I guess you take that but he couldn't have been more generous with his time and his answers in that moment like he was here that is really cool yeah I I I I did not I don't know I don't want to say I didn't expect it but I I mean I didn't think that I mean he was very generous nobody gave me the wrap it up like you know you I you know I interviewed you know lower artists on the totem pole and get to wrap it up you know they were just like here's time with this icon and he wasn't just one wording it you know he really was getting in there and that I was like I mentioned in the interview I was really appreciative that I mean a guy like that just doesn't have to do that right right that's the that's the whole thing there so I think you know we might get in opportunity if if he does release some new music or a tour you know he might come back around um especially if uh if he remembers you and you're in your car seat you might have a followup on if that car seat got you late or not I don't know how you're going to handle that one but go good luck with that right yeah that's my name yeah just hold up your new baby yep it worked Toby you were right yeah I got a wife and a couple kids like what am I doing like what I didn't even know if I should laugh or not like I was just like oh I don't know either oh so I didn't know what to do that's so funny man we appreciate you listening to Taste of Country Nights on demand if you can hit that like subscribe give us a review a comment pass the word along it all helps us out here at the Town Square Media podcast Network