NBC will honor Toby Keith’s life and legacy with a two-hour concert special, “Toby Keith: American Icon,” airing Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Available next day on Peacock
Thousands of adoring fans gathered in Nashville to celebrate proud Oklahoman and global superstar Toby Keith. The sold-out crowd at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena joined Keith’s family, friends, and an array of artists, celebrities, and songwriters for “Toby Keith: American Icon.”
Toby’s daughter, Krystal Keith speaks to her father being labeled an American Icon.
Audio / Krystal Keith - Toby Keith American Icon (AUDIO)
DownloadKrystal Keith – Toby Keith American Icon (AUDIO): “I think to us, I don’t want it to sound pompous, but it’s fitting. I think he would have rejected it a little bit. He always did reject it. In fact, the BMI icon award that he received, they talked to him about giving him that for several years before he actually received it. And he kept turning, he kept telling our manager, I’m not ready for that yet. I feel like those types of awards are given to people that are at the end of their career that are already retiring, that have kind of stopped touring. And he was like, I’m still selling out arenas. I’m still putting music out. Like I am, I’m still climbing and haven’t, you know, I haven’t started a decline yet. And I think he just wasn’t willing to say, okay, this is the level of what my iconic status will be because I’m still going. I still have room. For us, especially now that he’s gone, you know, I mean, he, very few artists attain the statistics of success that he attained. I mean, he is a Hall of Fame songwriter, all genre and country. He’s now being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He’s, you know, he just, those aren’t given to people. The New York Songwriter Hall of Fame is one of the greatest honors any songwriter can get all genre across the world and he’s in that and it’s a very select group of people and there’s a reason for that. He was an incredibly prolific songwriter. He sold so many albums, so many spins. His tours were record sales. I mean he sold out tours constantly. He never really had to shift his model because his tours always sold out. So, you know, I think icon is a great word. It’s incredibly fitting. And I think it’s more than deserved for him. He definitely deserved it.”
The star-studded event will feature an A-list lineup of musical performances and special guests who will come together to share their love for one of music’s most iconic artists.
Audio / Krystal Keith - Eric Church on Toby Keith Special (AUDIO)
DownloadKrystal Keith – Eric Church on Toby Keith Special (AUDIO): “Eric was someone that… He mentioned that early on, no one was taking a chance on him. No one was asking him to come on tour. And he was just trying to get his career off the ground. And my dad was willing to give him a shot and brought him out. My dad really was somebody that if he liked someone’s style, or he felt like they had something special, he would bring them out on tour and give them a shot. Especially when no one else did. He kind of always looked at himself as an outsider, doing things outside of what the norm of the industry was. So if everybody’s looking for the average, you know, pop country pretty boy, my dad’s going to go with the guy that’s, you know, got sunglasses on and a little bit more edgy and a little bit more old school country. So if you look back at the history of who my dad had on his shows, and where the trajectory of their career went after that. I’m not saying… It’s due to a lot of hard work and a lot of factors, but he took chances on artists long before they were really given a shot in the industry from Miranda to Blake and Thomas Rhett and literally everybody, Rascal Flatts. I think Eric was really, it was really sweet to hear how humbled he was by my dad at that point and that my dad would give him that shot and that he’s giving- I think he said something like, if it wasn’t for Toby Keith, there wouldn’t be an Eric Church. And I think it’s so sweet for him to give that kind of respect to my dad. He doesn’t have to. He could say, I mean, that was a leg up, but I did all this work and there’s an Eric Church because I’m Eric Church. But the fact that he is crediting my dad with that level of respect is pretty astronomical for me.”
Audio / Krystal Keith - The Show Must Go On (AUDIO)
DownloadKrystal Keith – The Show Must Go On (AUDIO): “I think I knew that in order to honor him, I had to get through it without crying and stopping. I didn’t want to mess up lyrics. I really wanted to put the performance out with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and not have to choke up. I just had to get in the head space that I was doing it for him. He would make fun of me if I didn’t do it right. So I wore his cowboy hat so that I had a little piece of him with me. And I think it was hard to get through, but it was something that he taught us how to, especially me being the artist of the family, he just taught me how to power through hard moments and just the show must go on.”
Performances and special guest appearances include Trace Adkins, Priscilla Block, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jordan Davis, Scotty Emerick, Brett Favre, Brantley Gilbert, Riley Green, HARDY, Tyler Hubbard, Jamey Johnson, Ella Langley, Leanne Morgan, Mac McAnally, Ashley McBryde, Parker McCollum, Jelly Roll, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Clay Walker, and Lainey Wilson, plus a very special performance by Keith’s daughter, Krystal Keith.
Krystal Keith shares a special moment with family while on stage honoring her father.
Audio / Krystal Keith - Singing Special Toby Keith Lyrics
DownloadKrystal Keith – Singing Special Toby Keith Lyrics (AUDIO): “So one of the things about this special is, watching people do his songs is, they’re singing the correct lyrics and we’re not used to that as his children. So my sister and I were sitting there. My brother was kind of tending to my mom because she was on the other side of him. And so he really spent the whole show just checking in with her and making sure she was okay. And my sister and I, I feel like got to relax a little bit more and just kind of enjoy it as a celebration. And one of the things that we laugh about is that every time a lyric would come up, like if you’ve been to a Toby Keith show, you know that he swaps out lyrics a lot. So you’ll be singing along and then he’ll say something like funny and it’s a dirty joke or whatever it is, it’ll be a witty, funny take on the song. And so we were constantly singing the lyrics that he would sing live and he sang those lyrics live so long that that to us is the correct lyric. And so when they would, the artists that were singing the song would sing what is actually the correct lyric, we would catch ourselves singing his incorrect lyrics as if it was the right one. And we just kept laughing because that was just so part of him. And people in the audience or friends that came from Oklahoma. After the show said, oh my gosh, how many times did you sing your dad’s stage lyrics versus what’s on his albums? And we were like every single one. So they were all our friends were doing the exact same thing.”
Known for his songwriting of hits including rowdy bar tunes, and even more so, his unwavering support of our military, the stage featured an enormous U.S. flag and platform VIP seats for our service members. Across the stage saw a full bar adorned with festive lights and all of the night’s special guests reveling in the party and camaraderie pulling fans into a fitting celebration of the larger-than-life entertainer.
Audio / Krystal Keith - Toby the Songwriter (AUDIO)
DownloadKrystal Keith – Toby the Songwriter (AUDIO): “He’s an incredible writer. He’s written, you know, if you look at his discography, he wrote 98% of the songs he put out, he wrote or co-wrote and a lot of them he wrote by himself. He just had a way of putting, he had a song that he had in his pocket for probably 12 years that he sang to me when I was a teenager that he ended up putting out, I think when I was in my twenties and it had a line that said, “I know she hung the moon cause I’m the one that held the ladder.” And I was just always just like, yeah, I wish I could, I wish I could write like that. I mean, I’m a songwriter, but just growing up watching him create these incredible songs and storytelling through lyrics like that. I mean, there’s a reason he’s in the Hall of Fame. There’s a reason.”
Keith’s heart and philanthropy were also on display as the night benefitted Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and The Toby Keith Foundation’s OK Kids Korral. Families from each organization were brought up to share their stories of receiving care and support when they needed it most.
Audio / Krystal Keith - OK Kids Corral
DownloadKrystal Keith – OK Kids Corral (AUDIO):“When NBC approached us, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t just doing a special for the sake of doing a special. My dad would not have been into a frivolous party in his honor. That would have been something he would have shied away from. He didn’t love going to award shows and being just on display. And that’s something that our family shares. We don’t love that, but it is part of the job sometimes. And we felt like if we were going to do this, my dad would only want to do it if it benefited something he cared about, whether it was the troops or in this case, it’s the corral. So we started the Toby Keith Foundation a little over 20 years ago. And it took us 10 years to raise the funds, but we opened the OK KIDS Corral. And it was inspired by like the Ronald McDonald House at St. Jude. We had a friend that had gone through a journey with their child that she ended up losing her battle a little bit shy of her third birthday. And one of the things that was the most helpful to their family while they were at St. Jude was having cost free housing, having food and toiletries and clothing, anything that they needed provided for them at no cost where they didn’t have to go shopping, it was just there. So that they could put all of their energy and focus into their child. A lot of these parents that have sick children have to quit their job, and then they have to move, they get an apartment or a hotel near the hospital while their child’s being treated, and that family is divided. Their income is cut in half, but their expense is double. Because now they have a second home they have to maintain or an apartment that takes the money of basically a second mortgage. And then on top of that, they have medical bills that they now have to pay. So it just drains families and it destroys families a lot of times. So my dad decided he wanted that in our backyard. He wanted Oklahoma to have that. And I think initially it was, we want that for Oklahoma kids. But what it’s become is, oh, you children’s hospitals right across the street. And those are the children that are referred to us. But kids come from all over the nation to be treated there. So those children all over the nation are benefiting from our kids. Corral. It’s a no cost housing facility. My dad always said it’s like Ritz Carlton meets Disney World. So it’s like really, really nice hotel and apartment type accommodations. We have volunteers make them dinner in our state of the art kitchen every night. We have a movie theater. We have a play room for the kids. We have playgrounds. We have reflection rooms, a gym, a teen lounge. Um, every, we have day rooms that are really cool for kids that live a couple hours away and they’re only coming in for the day, but they can relax between treatments and kind of hang out. Um, and then we have rooms that are up to three bedrooms for grandparents and so the whole entire family can come stay and be together. So the other children can come and be a part of this journey. And they’re in this community with kids that are also going through what they’re going through. So they have a support system. And you know, that it’s, it’s the thing that my dad was the most concerned about when he was diagnosed with cancer is who’s going to carry the torch, who’s going to take care of those babies is what he kept saying. And you know, that’s become our job is, you know, our role. Me and my siblings came together and said, okay, this is on us. It’s our job to continue this. And we did a really good job. I think this year we had record-breaking fundraising at our event this year. It was the first time of us hosting it without him. So I think his supporters, our family, our community here, stepped up with us and said, we’re here for you. We’re gonna stick with you through this. But it costs a lot of money to run that. And so we just, you know, we’re gonna just reach out in every avenue that we can to make sure that his legacy with us is carried forward.”
“Toby Keith: American Icon,” the live concert event and NBC special, are produced by UMG Nashville’s Sing Me Back Home Productions and ITV America’s Thinkfactory Media, in association with Alex Coletti Productions. Cindy Mabe, Dawn Gates, and Harper Grae are executive producers for Sing Me Back Home Productions in partnership with Mercury Studios executive producers Alice Webb and Barak Moffitt; Adam Reed and Jordana Hochman are executive producers for Thinkfactory; Alex Coletti is executive producer for Alex Coletti Productions; TK Kimbrell and R.A. Clark also serve as executive producers. Mercury Studios represents “Toby Keith: American Icon” for international sales and distribution. The show and special have been packaged by UTA – Keith’s longtime agency partner.
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