{"id":1301461,"date":"2018-12-14T12:25:07","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T19:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1801676"},"modified":"2018-12-14T12:25:07","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T19:25:07","slug":"toby-keith-on-the-deadline-that-almost-stopped-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/toby-keith-on-the-deadline-that-almost-stopped-his-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Toby Keith on the Deadline That Almost Stopped His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:652858?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/tinglel\/\" title=\"Posts by Lauren Tingle\" rel=\"author\">Lauren Tingle<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">16m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/toby-keith\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toby Keith<\/a> didn\u2019t get to where he is today by caving to any shred of self-doubt. He still has the same hunger to be the best in his craft that he had when he first started.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tell people pursuing anything in music, \u2018Dream big, and go for it,\u2019\u201d Keith told CMT.com on Wednesday (Dec. 12). \u201cBut try to be as realistic as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a time in Keith\u2019s early career when it almost became a hobby. He was in his late \u201820s and signed with a record label that was going to shelve his first album before his career had a chance to begin. At the time, he told himself that if he didn\u2019t get his big break by a certain age, he would have to find work elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had an album, and I just believed in it to the point of asking the label to drop me, which is completely unheard of,\u201d Keith said. \u201cI got an album rejected, was really struggling and was in a tough spot. I asked, \u2018Can I take my album with me? They said, \u2018Well we\u2019ve got a lot of money tied up in it, but I guess you could buy it.\u2019 Nobody had ever asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverywhere I went I was writing songs, and even though I had no Nashville success or anything big enough to make a good living,\u201d he adds, \u201cI still believed in what I was doing, and I thought my songs were better than everybody at my level. I really did. I just always prayed that if I hadn\u2019t made it by 30 years old that I was going to go do something else. Fortunately, it happened for me right at the 11th hour.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aIq1LvzSLsk?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aIq1LvzSLsk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>That 11th hour moment came in the form of an early morning phone call 18 days before Keith\u2019s 30th birthday from Mercury records executive, Harold Shedd, who was interested in seeing him perform after hearing one of Keith\u2019s demos. Shedd produced and worked with Alabama, K.T. Oslin, Kentucky Headhunters, Glen Campbell and others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe came to Oklahoma, heard me perform and signed me on the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From there, Keith\u2019s debut single \u201cShould\u2019ve Been a Cowboy\u201d from his self-titled debut went on to become his first of many signature songs. This year, he staged a major tour to recognize the song\u2019s silver anniversary, and his self-titled debut is celebrated with a special 25th-anniversary release titled <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Shouldve-Been-A-Cowboy-25th-Anniversary-Edition\/dp\/B07J3H1F1B?tag=ilovethatsong-20&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;ascsubtag=50ba5d3d06d156acab49f9f30ca4e061\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Should\u2019ve Been A Cowboy<\/a><\/em>. The new compilation adds three vault tracks: \u201cTossin\u2019 And Turnin\u2019,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll Still Call You Baby\u201d and \u201cDaddy Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keith added what kept him from throwing in the towel before his big break was having a staunch believability in his work and a higher power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a ridiculous belief in yourself and believability in what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Keith said. \u201cI read a couple interviews back then, and the one common thread throughout those interviews was that I had said, \u2018They may out-write me, but they won\u2019t out-work me.\u2019 So, the second that \u2018Cowboy\u2019 broke through, we just took off, taking advantage of striking while the iron was hot because I didn\u2019t know there was going to be a future. I didn\u2019t know there would be another hit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There were more. Including \u201cCowboy,\u201d Keith has accumulated 32 No. 1s, 26 of which he co-wrote and 16 he wrote by himself. His latest release is the title song for Clint Eastwood\u2019s new movie <em>The Mule<\/em>, \u201cDon\u2019t Let the Old Man In.\u201d The song was inspired by a conversation Eastwood and Keith had over a golf game when Keith found out that Eastwood would be on the set of the new film on his 88th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked him, \u2018What keeps you going?\u2019 He said, \u2018I just get up every day and not let the old man in,\u2019\u201d Keith recalled. \u201cIt was just as much about Clint as it was the guy in the movie. He treated me like a son and was wonderful to me. That\u2019s what songwriters do \u2014 give him a song. I wrote it, sent it to him and he called me right back and said, \u2018I\u2019m going to put this in the movie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keith\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Let the Old Man In,\u201d is an intimate and haunting performance that\u2019s full of drama. In theaters now, <em>The Mule<\/em> follows a 90-year-old horticulturist and WWII veteran who gets caught transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Michigan for a Mexican drug cartel.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yc5AWImplfE?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yc5AWImplfE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Lauren Tingle is a Tennessean and storyteller who eats music for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When she\u2019s not writing or rocking out, she enjoys yoga and getting lost in the great outdoors.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1801676\/toby-keith-on-the-deadline-that-almost-stopped-his-career\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Lauren Tingle 16m ago Toby Keith didn\u2019t get to where he is today by caving to any shred of self-doubt. He still has the same hunger to be the best in his craft that he had when he first started. \u201cI tell people pursuing anything in music, \u2018Dream big, and go for it,\u2019\u201d Keith [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1301461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 04:17:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}