At a glance
From beloved icons such as George Jones, Patsy Cline and Hank Williams to more obscure names — think Spade Cooley, Eddie Rabbitt and Faron Young — Toby Keith tips his cowboy hat to nearly 50 country recording artists in his rollicking new song “That’s Country Bro.”
The Songwriters Hall of Fame member, 58, also offers a rhyming couplet of advice to aspiring country recording artists: “You're gonna be country? / You oughta know / A little bit of somethin' 'bout the roots and the boots / And the rhinestone suits / That started this rodeo.”
Keith will bring his “That’s Country Bro” tour to the Celeste Center at the Ohio State Fair on Monday.
“I meet so many young artists who are writers, and I say, ‘You remember that song Mel Tillis had?’ and they’re like, ‘Who the hell is Mel Tillis?’ And I go, ‘Well, he wrote “Detroit City” and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.” And he had
Who: Toby Keith
Where: Celeste Center, Ohio Expo Center, Ohio State Fair, Interstate 71 and East 17th Avenue
Contact: www.ticketmaster. com
Showtime: 7 p.m. Monday
Tickets: $55 to $65; tickets purchased in advance include fair admission
20 hits on his own, and he’s in the (Country Music) Hall of Fame.’ ‘Oh, OK,’” Keith said during an interview.
“When I got to town in ’91, I knew everybody from Jimmie Rodgers forward. It was like this was my passion. You shouldn’t be here doing this if you don’t know who held the foundation that we’re here for. … I’m really just saying, ‘Hey, bro, that’s country, bro. And here’s what you gotta do: Listen to these guys. That’s what I did.’ Now, I don’t know if they’ll play it or not, but we’re gonna sing it.”
The country-music star has celebrated some significant musical accomplishments in the past year, commemorating the 25th anniversary of his fabled 1993 debut single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and writing the poignant ballad “Don’t Let the Old Man In” for filmmaking legend Clint Eastwood, who quickly decided to include it in his drama “The Mule.”
“I think of all the icons we have in America, I think Clint Eastwood’s the No. 1 guy. I’ve met four or five presidents and played with icons all over the world ... and did movies with Burt Reynolds and been around Willie (Nelson) and Hag (Merle Haggard). But I don’t know, something about Clint coming out in the ‘60s with ‘Rawhide’ and the Spaghetti Westerns and all the great movies he did, he just stands above the rest to me. I mean, he could just get up there and do a ballet dance the whole time, but I thought the movie was great,” Keith said.
“The cool thing is when the song came on at the end, and we were at the premiere in L.A. and all those jaded people were sitting there watching, they clapped and then they just sat there and listened to the song. They didn’t get up and walk out.”
The native Oklahoman said he plans to include "Don't Let the Old Man In" and "That's Country Bro" on an upcoming greatest-hits album.
Keith said he is hopeful that aspiring country artists take to heart the message of “That’s Country Bro,” which was inspired by the response to “35 MPH Town,” another song he penned with his frequent collaborator, Bobby Pinson.
“Some big songwriting buddy of his heard it and said, ‘That ain’t bro country’ — which is what kind of they call the new country music — ‘That’s country, bro.’ And I said, we ought to write that.’ So, me and Bobby sat down and wrote ‘That’s Country Bro,’” Keith recalled.
“I said what we ought to do is do a laundry list … of three generations of all the people that matter to us and then make ’em rhyme and tell everybody, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna sing country, you ought to know a little bit about it.”