TOBY KEITH 1961-2024 The Bold Life and Brave Final Days of a Country Icon

THE NASHVILLE RENEGADE DELIVERED CHART-TOPPING HITS—-AND PLAYED ON AS HE FACED CANCER

- RACHEL DESANTIS

Toby Keith always knew how to make the most of a moment. Two years after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, the country superstar hit the stage at the 2023 People's Choice Country Awards in September, his cherub-cheeked smile slimmer than usual below his signature cowboy hatevidence of the toll his illness had taken. (He later joked, "Bet you thought you'd never see me in skinny jeans!" while accepting his Country Music Icon award.) With Tricia, his wife of 39 years, wiping tears from her eyes in the audience, he performed his song "Don't Let the Old Man In," poignantly singing: "I want to live me some more." Though Keith wrote the song in 2018, it held new meaning and on Feb. 5 became an elegy for the star when he died peacefully, surrounded by family, at age 62. He faced his last days with both candor and optimism, performing three shows in Las Vegas in December and saying in his final interview that he was taking things one step at a time. "I'm not gonna let this define what my future is. It ain't up to us," he told Oklahoma City's News 9 in January.