NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country artist Toby Keith said Wednesday he's forming his own label, Show Dog Nashville Records, to gain more control over his work.
He's betting he can sell his music at least as well as others have in racking up sales of more than 25 million albums, with 10 going platinum, and 21 No. 1 singles.
Show Dog Records will record and distribute Keith's future work. Keith, whose hits include "How Do You Like Me Now," "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" and "I Love This Bar," split with Universal Music Group and its subsidiary DreamWorks Nashville earlier this summer.
"It's a pretty big undertaking with every business lesson I've ever learned in hand," Keith told The Associated Press.
Keith's tremendous popularity is expected to drive the label.
"I made sure the first artist I signed was Toby Keith," said the 6-foot-4 singer, who's a former oil field worker, rodeo hand and semipro football player.
Keith is starting Show Dog with former DreamWorks Nashville record executive Scott Borchetta, who also will operate his own label, Big Machine Records.
"Probably 75 percent of the people in this town think I'll fail, and the other 25 percent hope I fail," said Keith, who has had high-profile clashes with the Dixie Chicks and the late ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings.
But Keith is optimistic other artists will want to join his label after their contracts with others are up.
"I think we'll be able to sit back and watch people jump over the wall into my nut house," he said.
Keith said he likes the freedom of his own record label.
"We can literally make a decision at noon and get started by 1 p.m.," he said. "I get to do things exactly my way."
Keith left Mercury Records in 1999 because he was upset with the way his music was being handled. He went to DreamWorks Nashville and became a superstar. The label was acquired last year by Universal Music Group, which has Mercury under its umbrella.