Toby Keith talks the media, Wayman Tisdale and his “American Ride”
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“American Ride” covers new turf for Toby Keith
Oklahoman’s tour to include Europe, Nobel Peace Prize concert
The latest leg on Toby Keith’s journey through musical superstardom has the country singer-songwriter zipping up the charts, jumping across the Atlantic and traversing a personal loss.
The Norman resident’s busy autumn revved into high gear Tuesday with the release of his latest album, “American Ride.” But the new record is just the first milestone Keith, 48, will reach before 2009 ends: He is set to receive the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Songwriter/Artist of the Decade award, open to the National FFA Convention, take his first tour of Europe and play the Nobel Peace Prize concert.
The Oklahoma native currently is racing on the momentum of his album’s title track and lead-off single, the rare song he recorded but didn’t write.
“For me to cut somebody’s outside song, that meant it had the potential to be a really big song. The songwriter in me doesn’t want the artist in me to cut anything except my songs, but I know I kind of owe to myself as an artist to not pass up a song that’s just gonna fit you like a glove like ‘American Ride’ fits me,” Keith said in a phone interview from his Norman ranch.
Penned by Joe West and Dave Pahanish, the socially conscious track sped to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in just 13 weeks. Fueled by a video that takes jabs at Presidents Bush and Obama, terrorists, Wall Street and more, “American Ride” is Keith’s fastest-moving song since his 2001 smash “Courtesy of the Red, White And Blue (The Angry American).” The song’s commentary on the national news made a strong impression on Keith, who has often found himself embroiled in media controversy.
“It’s not really news any more, (it’s) the national entertainment, Fox and CNN. It blows me away that it’s more important that we know about Michael Jackson’s death or O.J. Simpson’s trial or Mackenzie Phillips sleeping with her dad. More people know about those three things than know that somebody tried to blow up the emerald tower in Dallas,” he said, He was referring to Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, a Jordanian accused of trying to blow up the Fountain Place tower with a truck bomb similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used in the Oklahoma City bombing. The bomb was a fake provided by an undercover agent, and Smadi was arrested in an FBI sting.
“He was going to bring down a 60-story tower building, and to me, that’s the news I want to hear. I shouldn’t have to go to the Internet to get that news. That’s what I want to make my children aware of, that that’s the kind of world this is. Instead, you get Mackenzie Phillips having sex with her dad and Michael Jackson’s doctor’s neighbor is allergic to grapefruit and that’s what this is making fun of,” Keith said.
The raucous commentary of “American Ride” contrasts with the emotional, jazz-tinged “Cryin’ for Me,” which Keith wrote after the death of his friend Wayman Tisdale, whom he called “the closest person to Jesus that I was ever around.” Tisdale, a former University of Oklahoma and NBA basketball star and jazz bassist, died in May at age 44 from complications of bone cancer.
At Tisdale’s funeral, Keith performed Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” because he wasn’t ready to play his “Cryin’ for Me,” which opens with Tisdale’s outgoing voicemail message.
“I got up and called his voicemail because I just couldn’t believe he was gone, you know. I wanted to hear his voice one more time and then I wrote the song about it. It’s kind of a goodbye song; it’s kind of my way of venting my pain if you will,” Keith said, recalling Tisdale’s unwavering courage and high spirits through his painful cancer battle.
By the time he entered the studio, Keith had finally cried out the worst of his grief. “Cryin’ for Me” features jazz stars and fellow Tisdale pals Dave Koz, Marcus Miller and Arthur Thompson.
“He was a grand individual and we really miss him. It really hurt me (to lose him). I don’t deserve everything I’ve got. I don’t live that kind of perfect life, and I don’t know very many people who do. That was the saddest part for me was just what a great individual he was and how much he deserved to live. And it was difficult for me to understand why he was taken, but he was, and that’s not my decision,” Keith said.
When it comes to songwriting, Keith can find inspiration anywhere, from his United Service Organization tours (“Ballad of Balad”) to the OU locker room (“If You’re Tryin’ You Ain’t”).
“That was what I was born to do. … I was put here to write songs. That’s what I do better than everything else I do. There’s nothing else I do creatively that is better than my songwriting,” he said.
The Nashville Songwriters Association International agrees: The group will present Keith its Songwriter/Artist of the Decade award for 2000-09 at an Oct. 18 banquet. Keith said he was honored to be chosen by a vote of “5,000 of the greatest songwriters on planet Earth.”
“There’s no politics involved. I will absolutely display whatever they give me, whatever the award looks like … in my house. I’ve won 60 or 70 awards, but really, they mean very little to me. Most of them aren’t voted on by the fans, most of them aren’t voted on by (my peers). The awards shows are so crooked and corrupt.”
On Oct. 21, the former FFA member will kick off the 82nd National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. And in November, he will take his “American Ride” on a long-awaited and already sold-out tour of Europe, including shows in Britain, Sweden, Finland and more.
He will cap his European adventure and busy fall by performing alongside Wyclef Jean, Donna Summer and more at the Dec. 11 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway.
-BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Wonderful article. Thanks Brandy. Toby always tells it like it is, no matter what he’s talking about. Again, I’d like to say congratulations to Toby on his Songwriter/Artist of the Decade Award. A well deserved accolade.