Toby Keith

Toby Keith Covel was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, on July 8, 1961. His family moved to Oklahoma City when he was young. At the age of eight, he got his first guitar (but it would be years after that he would consider a music career). Keith attended Moore High School where he played on the football team. After graduating from high school he started to work in the oil fields in Oklahoma. At the age of twenty he formed a band called Easy Money, and played at the local bars. In 1982, Keith found himself unemployed as the oil industry in Oklahoma began a rapid decline. He played football with the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers while still performing with his band. Eventually, the band cut a single titled Blue Moon and the song received some airplay on local radio stations in Oklahoma.

In 1993, Keith traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to distribute some copies of a demo tape to several record companies in the city. Having found no luck in his endeavor he returned home. Luckily for him, a fan of his, who was a flight attendant, gave a copy of Keith's demo tape to a Mercury Records executive while he was traveling on a flight she was working. Not long after that, Toby signed with Mercury. His self-named debut album was certified platinum and featured the single "Should've Been a Cowboy" which went to number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart. Moving to Polydor Records, Keith released his next two albums: Boomtown in 1994 (certified gold) and Blue Moon in 1996 (certified platinum).

When Polydor folded, Keith went back to Mercury and released his fourth album, Dream Walkin’, in 1997. The album featured collaboration from Sting as well as a cover of one of his songs. Due to creative differences, Keith moved to Dreamworks for his release of How Do You Like Me Now in 1999. The album was certified Double Platinum and the title song remained in number one for five weeks. His next album, Pull My Chain (2001), produced three No. 1 hits, "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight", "I Wanna Talk About Me", and "My List". Next year, he released his album Unleashed which sold 3 million copies. Then came his 2003 release Shock ‘n Y’all that debuted at number 1. In 2005 he released Honkytonk University completing his contract with Universal. Keith decided to start his own label, Show Dog Records, and released that label’s first album, White Trash With Money, in 2006.