As a musician, Toby Keith has had remarkable success, and it seems as though every song he churns out becomes an instant hit on the country charts. But it’s not only his music that makes him world renowned; his spunky attitude has also gotten him a lot of airplay and press as well. And though a lot of people might disagree with his opinions, his fans have continued to stick with him. Either way, he just sees himself as a down-home guy, and no matter what others think, he’s sticking to his guns, in both his career and his political beliefs.
“The most difficult thing to do when you’re patriotic is just dealing with the morons in the world who isolate you and put you on an island,” Toby Keith said recently at a press conference in Nashville, Tenn. “It amazes me how the right and the left fight so much over things that aren’t really political at all. My right to carry a gun is not political. I’m an American, and that is my right as an American. Just like it’s my right to vote, it’s my right to do anything that’s not illegal.”
Keith’s opinions have led to some very public consequences, with the news of his feud with singer Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks once headlining many publications. Even with this in his past, he’s still not afraid to speak his mind, and though most have him pegged as a conservative, he says that his beliefs lie somewhere between that of Republicans and Democrats.
“When you look at Al Gore trying to save the planet, that’s not a political issue. If the polar cap is melting and we’re doing it, I need to go educate myself to find out what I can do to help save the planet,” Keith explains. “That doesn’t make me a lefty. Because I wave the flag and support the troops wherever they are, that doesn’t make me a righty. But, I can guarantee you this, when Sean Penn opens his big pie hole and starts talking about me and Sean Hannity and President Bush, he sees me as a right-winger. When Ted Nugent looks at me, he sees me as a hippie. So, I know I’m dead where I’m supposed to be. I’m right in the middle, and I know where I’m at. I don’t see things right and left. I see them right and wrong.”
Whatever his political views may be, Keith has a lot of faith in American values. Unlike many people who just speak their mind, he actually put his beliefs into action by going abroad to support the troops.
“I went overseas again this year, and we have surpassed our 118th show. I’m just trying to go in, not only to lift the spirits and the morale of the troops, but try to set examples to get other entertainers to go at least visit a hospital in D.C. You don’t have to go where we go. Just go shake a guy’s hand for allowing you to believe whatever you want to believe.”
Keith is very generous with his time despite his hectic schedule as a recording musician, performer and producer. And on top of all this, he’s now trying out his luck in the movie business doing screenwriting and acting. Just a couple of years ago, he starred in the leading role, opposite actress Kelly Preston, in the film Broken Bridges, which premiered on CMT.
In this heart-warming film, his character, Bo Price, falls from the top of country music stardom and decides to return home only to find that his high school sweetheart never told him about having a daughter. Bo reunites with this lost love and experiences the challenges of becoming a dad to a teenage daughter.
The similarities between himself and the character helped Keith make the role come alive, and the soundtrack, with songs from Toby and other legendary country artists such as Willie Nelson, only added to the film’s Southern charm. With this success and his own newfound love of acting, Keith decided to take his acting career a step further by co-writing, producing and starring in his own feature film, Beer for My Horses, also the title of one of his hit songs.
“We got thirty or forty airings [of Broken Bridges] on CMT alone,” Keith explained. “It sold 1.3 million DVDs. So, I knew that we had the fan base there, and we could do a bigger, broader movie with more me in it, where it reflects what I did my first time.”
He also mentioned that after seeing only seven or eight dailies, Jeff Yapp, MTV and CMT all came aboard and joined forces in deciding to distribute the film theatrically. The film, loosely based on Keith’s song “Beer for My Horses,” is the title of a toast that is “about law enforcement, and any kind of people that uphold justice, coming back from the big ride. It’s an old school way of saying salute the ones that made it back and salute the ones that didn’t make it back and job well done.”
This film is extremely different than Broken Bridges, because instead of a romantic drama, it’s a comical take on country life. “This movie is more of a comedy with a tip of the hat to Burt Reynolds and the way he made movies, nobody makes them like that,” Keith said. “It’s got a little bit of the wackiness in the content. It is a comedy, but it’s got a little bit of the wackiness and the Southern-ess that comes in the Reynolds-type movies. And at the same time, it gives you the nice police story investigation and kind of follow also some twists and turns that you have to figure out along the way. But it has really nothing to do with the video, it has a lot to do with the toast [and the song’s meaning.]”
Beer for My Horses is a story about two small town deputies who take matters into their own hands, sending them on a wild ride. Audiences are sure to laugh throughout the film watching these men, Rack (Keith) and Lonnie (Rodney Carrington), stop at nothing in order to save Rack’s girlfriend from drug lords on the run. It’s also chock full of other big names, such as actor Tom Skerritt ( from Top Gun and Steel Magnolias) and actress Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black). Keith, who helped with casting, seemed to have a great time on the set and was surprisingly comfortable around the more experienced actors.
“You just want to hold your own and hope that you do,” he said. “It never gets easier. When you get up in the morning, you start reading your daily sheet, you start prepping for where I want to take this role. I’m really satisfied with my effort.”
All in all, Keith believes that this movie will be even bigger and better than his last. “It will surpass Broken Bridges no question. Broken Bridges was not the movie this movie is, even though Broken Bridges was a great script, it wasn’t really my movie. It was a movie made for somebody else that they brought me in and said we want you to play this guy. This movie was made for me. This movie hits my fans right in the mouth. So, do I think it will do better? Absolutely. Can it be huge? Absolutely. When you have somebody like Roadside Attractions come in and watch a screening of it and leave and call you the next day and say we’re going to buy this movie, you know you’re in.”
Looks like life can’t get any better for this country star who has obviously proven that he can do it all. But his music fans don’t have to worry that he’ll soon be giving up his singing career; he’s currently on tour with Montgomery Gentry and is working on another album. “The only two things that I really do are movies and music,” Keith said. “It’s only two. But I’ve been a producer for a long time…That’s my job, and writing music is something that I’ll do forever regardless. I’ll always have a song in my heart, and I’ll always be a writer. This movie stuff is a new project, but it’s a fun project.”
Beer for My Horses is set to be released in August 2008.
