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The feisty country star on his country bona fides and his true blue politics
By Melinda Newman
Special to MSN Music
Toby Keith has no trouble telling anyone where he stands, whether it is through song or conversation. Talk to the Oklahoma-based country star for only a few minutes and Keith will reveal he's a lifelong Democrat who believes in a woman's right to choose and a health care public option. And, oh, he'll also remind you he's registered 27 #1s, including the controversial "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," (from 2002's CD "Unleashed") which included the infamous warning "You'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S.A./'Cause we'll put a boot in you're a**/It's the American way."
Years later, when Keith speaks thoughtfully and expansively on a number of topics, he brings up the song unprovoked. It's clear he loves and reveres the tune,which he uses as his show closer every night, but he remains rankled that certain listeners and critics pigeonhole him as a belligerent flag waver because, as he points out, he's so much more -- for what it's worth. When he released "Courtesy," "We'd just had our asses handed to us," he tells MSN.com. With the song, he says he was saying, "Let's get our self respect back and be a country again, and that [song is] all [my critics] hear. They don't hear the beer drinking and the booze swilling and the womanizing and those [songs], you know what I mean?"
Two weeks following the release of his Oct. 6 studio album, "American Ride," which debuted atop Billboard's Country Album chart, Keith was honored by Nashville Songwriters Association International as its songwriter/artist of the decade, an honor which he says, means to him as much as any he's ever received.
MSN Music: Your new album's title track "American Ride," takes equal opportunity jabs at how silly we've become as a nation in some ways. Was there a turning point where we just lost all of our common sense?
Toby Keith: When it became battle of the right wing/left wing. As long as we had just one political agenda for the news, CNN, then there was no one to compete with 'em. Then as soon as Fox came into play and offered the exact opposite, you've got people throwing left hooks and right hooks at each other and they're in a ratings war. It's not as much as the news anymore as whatever's hot ...There was very little coverage of [the recent terrorist threat in Dallas] in my opinion -- p*** poor coverage of that -- but at the same time, we had Michael Jackson until we just had a belly full and stuff like McKenzie Phillips having sex with her dad.
You just shot the video for "Cryin' for Me," a moving tribute to your friend, NBA star and smooth jazz bassist Wayman Tisdale, who died from cancer earlier this year. You were too upset to sing "Cryin' for Me" at his memorial service. Will you be able to sing it on tour?
I'm ready. I got on my motorcycle and I rode it to Memphis, Tenn., with some buddies and we went down there and gambled and just had a little guy ride. I turned my stereo off and I just sang it to myself most of the way there and cried the whole way. It just kept killing me and I just said, "F***, I'm just going to keep singing this son of a bitch until I don't cry" and I just kept doing it and doing and finally, we got there.
You have no sacred cows in your songs; you'll take it on if it's left or right if you don't like it.
Yeah.
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