Toby Keith Tour Information
Toby graduated from high school in 1979 and then went to work as a derrick hand in the oil fields of his home state, and eventually worked his way up to the position of operations manager. At age 20, Toby formed his first band, called the Easy Money band. They would play in local bars and Toby was often paged called away to work in the fields.
By 1982, the oil industry began to hit a recession and Toby found he out of work. He fell back on football and played defensive-end for a semi-pro team in Oklahoma City. After two years of playing semi-pro ball, Toby decided to give music another shot and pursue it full time. With the doubt of many in his inner circle, in 1984, Easy Money began to frequent the honky tonk circuit In Oklahoma and Texas. The band cut a single that received some airplay in the local market.
Also in 1984, Toby married wife Tricia. The pair has three children. Although Tricia supported her husband's aspirations, Toby had promised himself that if had not become famous by the age of 30 he would quit the music business. But that age had come and gone and he still kept at it. In 1993, Toby went to Nashville and distributed copies of a demo Easy Money had made to several record companies. Unfortunately, there was no interest in signing him to a recording country. Toby returned home depressed.
His luck would soon change. A flight attendant and fan of Toby's passed along a copy of his demo to an executive at Mercury Records while on a flight she was working. The rep liked what heard and went to see Toby perform live. Toby then signed with Mercury. His debut single, "Should've Been a Cowboy," went to #1 on the Billboard country charts and his debut album went platinum.
Since then, Toby has had a long and successful streak of hit singles and best selling records. He has become one the highest grossing live performers in country history and has even spawned a successful chain of bar and grills named after one of his songs.