Video: Toby Keith pays tribute to Wayman Tisdale
Oklahoma singer-songwriter Toby Keith pays tribute to the late Wayman Tisdale with the new music video to his song “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song).” The video premiered exclusively this morning on CMT.
The new single may be the most personal and emotionally raw offering of the country music star’s entire career. “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” and its accompanying video offer a heartfelt homage to Tisdale, whom Keith considered a close friend.
An all-American basketball player for Oklahoma and NBA star before launching a second career as a jazz bassist, Tisdale passed away unexpectedly in May from complications resulting from cancer treatments that seemed to have left him with a clean bill of health, according to a news release.
For Keith, Tisdale’s death was a terrible blow unlike anything he’d experienced before, the release states. He poured his emotions into music, writing a song he intended to play at Tisdale’s funeral, but the wound was still too fresh.
“I’ve had some loss in my life, of course my dad, but that’s different,” Keith says in the release. “I’ve lost some friends and acquaintances along the way, but this one was very difficult for me. I wrote this for (the funeral), but I could not get through it. I ended up doing Willie’s ‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground’ because I wasn’t attached to that. It was weeks before I could make it all the way through the song. It was tough on me.”
“Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” co-produced by Mark Wright, was the most added song at country radio last week, according to Country Aircheck/Mediabase. And the video has been added by CMT in Hot Shot Rotation, and by GAC in its Turbo Track slot.
The video features video and photos of Tisdale from both his careers, as well as scenes of him hanging out with Keith, spending time with his family and getting around on his prosthetic limb after losing a leg to cancer. Those images are intertwined with scenes of Keith singing and playing guitar and jazz star Dave Koz, another friend of Tisdale’s who plays on the track, wailing away on his saxophone.
The video will have you welling up with emotion, particularly if you are an Oklahoman and/or a fan who was touched by Tisdale’s life and luminous smile. It is a fitting visual to go with the tearjerking song.
“Cryin’ For Me” is the second single from Keith’s recently released chart-topping “American Ride” album, following the smash No. 1 title track.
Keith’s “America’s Toughest Tour” continues to draw standing-room-only crowds, and the Norman resident will embark on his first European tour this month.
-BAM
Toby Keith’s emotional music video tribute to Wayman Tisdale premiering Monday on CMT
Toby Keith performs at Wayman Tisdale’s memorial service in May. (Associated Press photo)
The emotional music video for Toby Keith’s “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)” will premiere Monday morning exclusively on CMT.
The heartfelt ballad is a tribute to Keith’s friend and fellow Oklahoma star Wayman Tisdale. Tisdale, a former University of Oklahoma and NBA standout turned jazz bassist, died in May after a long battle with cancer.
A reliable source tells me the video is sure to break hearts and put lumps in throats, so my advice is to have some tissues handy on Monday morning.
-BAM
Toby Keith will play to 1 million people in the U.S. on “America’s Toughest Tour”
Toby Keith took America by storm with the No. 1 debut of his new CD, “American Ride,” on Billboard¹s Top Country Albums Chart and two weeks consecutive on Billboard’s and Country Aircheck/Mediabase’s single charts with the title track. And now he’s taking Europe by storm as well.
Keith’s first-ever European tour, set to kick off next month, is selling out all over including The Hammersmith in London.
Stateside, Keith’s “America’s Toughest Tour,” presented by Ford F Series, will play to more than a million people, marking the ninth consecutive year the hard-touring artist will cross the impressive million ticket threshold.
And his recent performance at Lucas Oil Stadium, home field of the NFL’s Colts, in Indianapolis to kick off the 82nd National FFA Convention sold out, smashing previous FFA attendance records by more than 7,000 tickets. It is the largest group of FFA students ever to have gathered in one place at one time.
On Keith’s latest album, he recorded an anthem to his dedicated fans in the track “Gypsy Driftin’.” He notes, “it can be tough beating it up on the road this long, going onstage when you’re tired or sick. But as soon as you step out there the fans wave their flames and sing along with every song and it makes it all better. So this song is a tip-of-the-hat to the people who’ve supported us all these years.”
Earlier this year Keith made his annual visit overseas to forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and performed for U.S. troops as part of his seventh consecutive USO Tour.
So while he’s no stranger to world travel, the tour this November will be Keith’s first foray into Europe as a touring act. The tour, promoted by Live Nation International, kicks off Nov. 9 in Glasgow, Scotland, and continues through Northern Europe.
Keith will visit the following cities:
Nov. 9 Glasgow ABC, Glasgow, Scotland
Nov. 10 HMV Apollo, Hammersmith, London, England
Nov. 12 Olympia, Dublin, Ireland
Nov. 13 Odyssey, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nov. 15 Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nov. 16 Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden
Nov. 18 House of Culture, Helsinki, Finland
Nov. 21 Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
Nov. 22 Vestlandshalle, Bergen, Norway
On Dec. 11 Keith returns to the Spektrum arena in Oslo to join an elite group of artists performing at the 16th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert. The performances will be broadcast to a worldwide audience.
Keith was also recently honored by Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), which awarded him its prestigious Songwriter/Artist of the Decade Award at an Oct. 18 event in Nashville. He is also a three-time BMI Country Songwriter of the Year with his catalog generating more than 65 million performances.
-BAM
Toby Keith takes “American Ride” to No. 1
Toby Keith
Oklahoma country star Toby Keith has taken his new album, “American Ride,” to the top of Billboard’s country albums chart, according to CMT.com.
First-week sales for the album exceeded 90,000 copies.
Keith’s title track and lead-off single for the album slid to No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list after two weeks in the No. 1 spot.
Chris Young’s “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” climbed into the top spot after debuting on the chart 35 weeks ago.
-BAM
Jeff Dunham to speak to National Press Club today
Jeff Dunham – hailed by Time magazine as “perhaps the most popular comedian in the U.S.” -meets the press today when he and his comedic sidekicks appear as a prestigious newsmaker speaker at the National Press Club, the world’s largest professional organization for journalists.
According to a news release, the invitation to speak at the dinner is part of a month filled with such high-profile events for Dunham as he nears the premiere of his Comedy Central TV series “The Jeff Dunham Show” on Oct. 22.
The ventriloquist also will make a cameo appearance on the Emmy Award-winning Best Comedy “30 Rock” on NBC on Oct. 29.
The National Press Club invites speakers to address its members on such criteria as their newsworthiness and national or international stature, and generally are high-level decision-makers or extremely influential setters of policy and trends. Dunham joins such recent speakers as Sen. John Kerry, Congressmen Barney Frank and John Conyers, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and “The Wire” creator and former journalist David Simon. Since 1932, more heads of state and government have appeared at the National Press Club than any other forum in the world outside the Oval Office of the White House, including every sitting U.S. president. Newsmakers luncheons also occasionally feature superstar entertainers like Oklahoman Toby Keith and Billy Joel.
Dunham has certainly become a newsmaker and influential trendsetter in recent years. Recently named to Forbes magazine¹s Celebrity 100 list, he has been rated as “America’s favorite comedian” by Slate and the top-grossing live comedy act in North America by Pollstar. Dunham has sold an astounding 4 million-plus copies of his three DVD titles (as compared with average stand-up comedy DVD sales of 35,000) and racked up 350 million worldwide views of his clips on You Tube and other Internet sites.
He earned the most-watched show ever on Comedy Central with his holiday show “A Very Special Christmas Special,” drawing 6.6 million viewers to its debut, and recently struck a multi-platform deal with Comedy Central and content partnerships with iTunes and Amazon.com. Next year will see the publication by Dutton of his unique autobiography, “All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me,” in which the comedian and his characters tell his life story.
“The Jeff Dunham Show” is an innovative “comedy reality” series on which Dunham and his suitcase posse of comedic partners interact with real people in actual locations to hilarious results.
His “30 Rock” appearance finds Dunham joining such other notables as former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Anniston and Calvin Klein who have done cameos on the critically-acclaimed show. Dunham caps 2009 with his first-ever tour of Australia.
-BAM
Toby Keith discusses his “weird connection” to OU and OSU
University of Oklahoma Sooners football fan Toby Keith cheers on the bench during a 2005 game at The Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, in Norman. (Photo by Jim Beckel/The Oklahoman Archives)
It’s no secret Toby Keith is a huge University of Oklahoma fan: In the fall, the country superstar and Norman resident often can be seen on the sidelines at the Sooners’ home football games.
An experience in the OU locker room inspired the singer-songwriter to pen the blues-rocker “If You’re Tryin’ You Ain’t,” one of the tracks on his new album “American Ride.”
In the press materials, Keith tells the story of how the song came about:
It was halftime, I was in the University of Oklahoma football locker room and there is a great guy who works there who always has these big rolls of athletic tapes on his belt. His job is to keep the players all taped up. They were in a dogfight with somebody and he was just sweating, wrapping ankles and trying to get the guys ready for the second half. He had a bunch of injured soldiers over there and was going at it. I went over and he said “How you doin’?” And I said, “Good, are you tryin’ to get everybody healthy?” He said, “If you’re trying you ain’t.” In my spare time I wrote this blues song. The whole song is about if you ain’t getting it done, at some point you can’t try you’ve just gotta get the job done.
In an interview last week, Keith told me that despite his fervent OU fandom, “there was every reason in the world for me to have been more of an OSU fan than an OU fan,” referring to OU’s in-state rival (and my alma mater), Oklahoma State University.
Keith, who will open up the National FFA Convention Oct. 21 in Indianapolis, said his favorite class in high school was agriculture, or ag class.
“I had FFA every year I could have it. Ag class is what we called it. … To me, it was my favorite class in school. They really taught me. They taught me how to weld in ag class in high school. I can go down here today and turn my welder on, put my hood on, get my gloves on and I can build you (something). I built all the service gates out here at my house.”
His love of all things agricultural would have made him a prime candidate for OSU, originally known as Oklahoma Argricultural & Mechanical College.
“That’s what my world was: I mean, I worked for a rodeo company, I was in ag, if I would have gone to college and pursued a degree, instead of going to work in the oilfield, I’d've had to go to OSU to get my degree because it would have been some kind of ag related to degree,” he said.
But he grew up watching OU Coach Barry Switzer and football greats like Billy Sims and Joe Washington.
“I started selling Cokes at OU when I was 13; I grew up in Moore and Norman; I was right here in the shadow of this stadium, so it’s really weird my connection with OU and OSU,” he said.
Despite his very public loyalty to OU, Keith’s first hit, 1993’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” is often played at the OSU Cowboys’ football games.
“I went up there (to Stillwater) and watched OU play OSU two or three years ago … and OSU beat the fire out of them. And every time they scored, they played it. Then, at the end of the game, as we were leaving the stadium, they had it on a loop,” he said with a laugh.
“I bet it played 20 times in a row, just over and over and over and over, and the irony of getting your butt kicked and walking out there and hearing your song play was pretty crazy.”
This year, OU and OSU will play their bedlam matchup Nov. 28 in Norman.
-BAM
Brad Paisley, Oklahoma stars featured on People Country, Country Weekly covers
Brad Paisley (Associated Press photo)
Brad Paisley is being pictured on two magazine covers in two weeks.
The country star is featured in the “Country Stars & Their Families” issue of People Country, on newsstands today through Nov. 9. The feature is titled “What My Father Taught Me” and lists several things that Brad has learned from his father, Doug: Be dedicated, drive them anywhere (and don’t charge for gas!), do your best … and then do better, be of service and it comes back to family.
Along with five pages of text and exclusive photos of Brad, Doug and Huck, Brad’s 2-year-old son, the issue of People Country also will feature Oklahoma stars such as Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney.
The next issue of Country Weekly, on stands Monday, focuses on country artists “Getting Through Tough Times.” In it, Paisley remembers how he handled the death of his Aunt Rita in 2004 and how he came to record “When I Get Where I’m Going” from that experience.
Also featured on the cover, and presumably in the cover story, are Oklahoma stars Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Toby Keith.
-BAM
Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn to play 2010 Stagecoach Music Festival
Brooks & Dunn (Associated Press photo)
Toby Keith (AP photo)
Oklahoma country star Toby Keith will play his first Stagecoach Music Festival next year, while duo Brooks & Dunn, which includes former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn, have added the California festival to their final tour.
According to CMT.com, Keith and Keith Urban will put in their first Stagecoach performances in the 2010 installment, set for April 24-25 in Indio, Calif.
Brooks & Dunn and Sugarland, who played at the inaugural Stagecoach festival in 2007, will also perform headline sets. In August, Dunn and Kix Brooks announced that they will break up their musical partnership after 2010’s “The Last Rodeo Tour.”
Other artists booked for Stagecoach 2010: Gary Allan, Billy Currington, Merle Haggard, Jamey Johnson, the Oak Ridge Boys, Ray Price and Phil Vassar. Also, the Avett Brothers, Bobby Bare, Carlene Carter, Joey & Rory, B.J. Thomas, Nick 13, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Baxter Black, the SteelDrivers, Easton Corbin, Mallary Hope, Chuck Mead, Mary Gauthier, Bill Anderson, Waddie Mitchell and Trampled by Turtles.
Tickets go on sale on Oct. 16, with prices beginning at $99 for a two-day pass.
For more information, go to www.stagecoachfestival.com.
-BAM
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
CD review: Toby Keith, “American Ride”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Toby Keith “American Ride” (Show Dog Nashville)
Prolific country superstar Toby Keith confidently and capably cruises through romantic ballads, funny party songs and brash social commentary on his new album “American Ride.”
The Norman resident already has topped the country charts with the buzz-generating title track, a frank and foot-stomping critique of American culture, from lawsuits and plastic surgery to terrorism and YouTube. While Joe West and Dave Pahanish penned “American Ride,” Keith wrote or co-wrote the remaining 11 tracks.
The Oklahoma native keeps the toe-tapping tempo and showcases his sharp sense of humor with “If I Had One” and “Every Dog Has Its Day.” He augments his favored steel guitars and fiddles with blues-rock flourishes on the party song “Loaded” and the motivational “If You’re Tryin’ You Ain’t.”
He pays humorous and sympathetic tribute to the troops with “Ballad to Balad,” inspired by his latest United Service Organization Tour of Iraq, and exudes affectionate desire on the good-natured two-stepper “You Can’t Read My Mind.”
Those who are willing to look beyond Keith’s bold, often controversial persona know he excels as a balladeer, and his new album rides highest in its softer moments. He convincingly tells the tale of a ne’er-do-well seeing the error of his ways in the affecting “Woke up on My Own,” then delivers unabashed romance with “Tender as I Want to Be.”
But the album’s highlight is “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song),” Keith’s moving and musically fitting tribute to his friend Wayman Tisdale, the basketball-star-turned-jazz-bassist who died in May after a long cancer battle.
— BAM
