Toby Keith is all country. He sings songs about patriotism and drinking. He drives a big truck and is rarely seen without his cowboy hat. But every once in a while, Keith takes a musical detour. And when he does, the fans follow.
"I like to throw stuff up there," Keith said by phone from a tour stop in Pensacola, Fla. "I'll do two or three straight-ahead country songs, and then I'll do something a little off the wall just to keep it interesting and throw everybody a curve ball.
"But I've earned the right to be able to do that. Most of these songs, like 'Talk About Me' and 'Mexico' and things like that, most artists would have a real difficult time getting that played on the air. But I have a reputation for that being what I do, so it kind of goes hand in hand. Everybody accepts it."
"Accepts" is hardly the word for it. Keith's new single, "Stays in Mexico," is the highest debuting single of his career, which says a lot when viewed up against former chart-toppers "Should've Been a Cowboy," "How Do You Like Me Now," "I Wanna Talk About Me" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."
"Mexico" tracks two adults who hit it off while vacationing in the southern country and pass the time drinking plenty of native spirits. The video is a fun, tongue-in-cheek look at the couple's dalliances, with a mariachi band providing a roving soundtrack.
Keith, who writes or co-writes nearly every song he records, said inspiration for the track came from a T-shirt. "I thought, 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' could be a good song, but to me it wasn't that great idea. Mexico takes it a step further. You know, when you step off the airplane in Vegas, you're looking for a slot machine. When you step off the plane in Mexico, you're looking for a margarita. So, it was just a lot dirtier."
And a lot of fun, which is a continuing theme in Keith's career. Sure, he can be serious when the mood strikes — take his ballad "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This," for example. And you can bet he'll stand up for his country — "Courtesy," "American Soldier" — when he feels it necessary.
First and foremost, however, Keith is about entertaining his fans. His "Big Throwdown" tour kicked off in August to 40,000-plus concertgoers in the Gillette Stadium outside Boston.
Consistently high ticket sales have since followed, no surprise after this spring's record-setting "Shock'N Y'all" tour. "I don't think you should just stand up there and sing. Obviously, everybody likes your music or they wouldn't be there. But I try to put a show on. My goal when they leave is to say everybody was entertained."
Though his set list stays generally the same, the production changes with each tour, and Keith says he's amazed by the continued growth. "It's unbelievable. They just get a little bigger each year."
And so, it seems, does Keith himself. He's up for Favorite Male Artist and Favorite Album ("Shock'N Y'all") at the American Music Awards later this month, he performed at the kickoff of the NFL season last month and he'll be the subject of the feature interview in the January edition of Playboy magazine.
Through it all, Keith will continue to say what's on his mind. He may have toned down a bit from his headline-making 2002 feud with the Dixie Chicks, but he still expresses unequivocal support for U.S. troops and threw his hat in President Bush's re-election ring.
It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that the native Oklahoman is a registered Democrat. But Keith says the Democrats of his childhood, and those favored by his veteran father, are not what they used to be. "When we had Democratic leaders back in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s, we still went to war and we still fought like hell for freedom. And now if you support war, you're all of a sudden a right-wing nut, you know? And that's wrong."
Only time will tell if the war in Iraq was the right choice, he says. But now that the United States is in it, it should be for the long haul. "We've had too many people die to get us where we're at. The streets of freedom are paved in blood. . . . Everybody that lost a family member or their lives in the name of freedom, it all goes for naught.
"Every one of those boys that died in Iraq will die in vain if somebody goes in there and just pulls our troops out. And that country will be in complete and utter chaos. We have to stay in there now whether we went for the right reasons or not."
If you go. . .
What: Toby Keith, Teri Clark
Where: Delta Center
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $44.75-$59.75
Phone: 325-7328
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com