KEITH URBAN REMEMBERS TOBY KEITH.

Artist: Keith Urban

During Keith Urban‘s early career, he got the chance to be the opening act on Brooks & Dunn‘s Neon Circus Tour, which also featured Montgomery Gentry on the bill, as well as Toby Keith. He loved being out on the road with those guys, and he recalls riding Toby’s tour bus when they had to make an urgent pit stop at 2am at one point.

“The Neon Circus Tour with Brooks & Dunn – I was the opening, opening, opening act going on at, I don’t know, four in the afternoon (laughs) and you know playing my 20-minute set, and then Montgomery Gentry came out and played a set and then Toby came out and then Kix and Ronnie came out and killed it,” recalls Keith. “It was an amazing tour. I have a lot of stories from that tour. I rode on Toby’s tour bus on his 40th birthday, which was surreal, and there we are rolling down some interstate and he gets hungry at two in the morning, so we pull in to a Steak ‘n Shake, sat in the booth and ordered Steak ‘n Shake.”

The entire tour lineup decided to make after-show stops at local bars and take over for the house band.

“We would always do it unannounced, and it would be almost all of us – Montgomery Gentry, me, Toby, Kix and Ronnie, when they finished, we’d all end up there playing,” says Keith. “It was amazing because some of the clubs would only have six people in them because everybody’s at the concert. These people couldn’t go to the concert, so we show up, jump up and start started playing songs and then the club would fill up. And then people would have you signing all their shirts and stuff like that, and for whatever reason, I thought, ‘I’m just gonna sign Keith instead of both of my names. It’ll cut my signing time in half.’ So, I’m writing Keith (laughs) on all these shirts, and then at the end of the night, I noticed these people whose shirts are signed, and it’s like, it’s got more writing on it. And I went over and looked. Toby just started writing his name first, but he put it right in front of mine. (laughs) So, he got a full signature, and I got nothing.”

Toby Keith passed away February 5th from his battle with stomach cancer. He was 62 years old.

Keith Urban (Toby Keith) 1 OC: …Steak ‘n Shake. :35
“The Neon Circus Tour with Brooks & Dunn – I was the opening, opening, opening act going on at, I don’t know, four in the afternoon (laughs) and you know playing my 20-minute set, and then Montgomery Gentry came out and played a set and then Toby came out and then Kix and Ronnie came out and killed it. It was an amazing tour. I have a lot of stories from that tour. I rode on Toby’s tour bus on his 40th birthday, which was surreal, and there we are rolling down some interstate and he gets hungry at two in the morning, so we pull in to a Steak ‘n Shake, sat in the booth and ordered Steak ‘n Shake.”

Keith Urban (Toby Keith) 2 OC: …I got nothing. 1:19
“On that tour, we started getting into the habit when we would come off stage, we would find the local honkytonk where there was a country music band playing, and we would organize all our buses to go to that line dance bar or whatever it was, and then we would get up and just take over for the house band. We would always do it unannounced, and it would be almost all of us – Montgomery Gentry, me, Toby Kix and Ronnie, when they finished, we’d all end up there playing. It was amazing because some of the clubs would only have six people in them because everybody’s at the concert. These people couldn’t go to the concert, so we show up, jump up and start started playing songs and then the club would fill up. And then people would have you signing all their shirts and stuff like that, and for whatever reason, I thought, ‘I’m just gonna sign Keith instead of both of my names. It’ll cut my signing time in half.’ So, I’m writing Keith (laughs) on all these shirts, and then at the end of the night, I noticed these people whose shirts are signed, and it’s like, it’s got more writing on it. And I went over and looked. Toby just started writing his name first, but he put it right in front of mine. (laughs) So, he got a full signature, and I got nothing.”