Born: July 8th, 1961

From: Moore, Oklahoma, USA

Active Career: 1993 - Present

Toby Keith Covel is an American country singer, songwriter, actor and record producer who is known for his patriotic and party songs. While born in Clinton, Oklahoma, he grew up in the city of Moore. During his childhood, he developed an intrest in music while visting his grandmother in Fort Smith, Arkinsas. His grandmother owned Billie Garner's Supper Club, a diner featuring live music. During the summers, he would do various jobs around the establishment and eventually got to play with the bandstand. Keith was first given a guitar at the age of 8.

In high school, Keith played on the football teams at Highland West Junior High and Moore High School. His family was heavily reliant on the oil industry, and Keith was working as a derrick in the oil sands, and eventualy moved up to be an operations manager. In 1982, when the oil industry in Oklahoma started to collapse, he fell back on football, playing for the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers. Through all of this Keith was still playing music casually.

At the age of 20 and while working in the oil industry, he formed the Easy Money Band. At this point in his life, he became dedicated to pursuing a music carrer. In 1984, Easy Money started playing the circuit of honky-tonks in Oklahoma and Texas. However, in the 1990's, he moved to Nashville in hopes of signing a record deal. He began playing at honky-tonks in Nashville and handing out demos, but got turned down. On a trip back to see his family, he gave a demo tape to a flight attendant, who was a fan, She, in return, gave it to Harold Shedd, who was an executive at Murcury Records. Shedd agreed to go see him perfom live after liking the demo, and evetually signed him.