Toby Keith, The Early Years

An Interview with Toby by Larry Holden copyright Country Weekly

Here's the real-and unexpected-story, in his own words, of the country superstar's childhood and everything that went into growing up Toby.
The current single,
"Honkytonk U"
is autobiographical. Her name is Hilda Martin. She's my grandmother on my mother's side, 84 years old, Great health, great mind and very dear to me. When I was about 12, I'd go to grandmother's in the summertime. She lived by herself, so I'd stay with her and she'd take me to the club-that was my first introduction to live music. There was a three-piece horn section, bass player, baby grand piano, drummer and a Chet Atkins Gibson guitar. The band played everything from "In the Mood" to country ballads to Sinatra to what was hot then, like 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown'. And I'd jam with them.
My grandmother gave me my first guitar when I was 8. I'd play my mom's old records and try to figure out the guitar licks. I learned mostly from Webb Pierce, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins and Bob Wills. But the Bob Wills songs seemed old-fashioned to a kid growing up in a rock 'n' roll era. Today, I really appreciate what Bob was doing.
We were born wherever Dad's rig was. When I was born, the rig was on the Texas-Oklahoma line. My sister and my little brother were born in Oklahoma.
My Dad carried a pretty hard hand, and he'd take a belt to all three of us. I was the oldest, so I got the brunt. But as he got older, we found out he wasn't as hard-shelled as he wanted us to think he was. That discipline showed up later in three kids who were well raised.
When I was a toddler, my mother looked like Patsy Cline and could sing! I remember hearing her sing songs by Skeeter Davis, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton as she cleaned house. My Dad was a freak for Bob Wills. Out of the 50 albums in his collection, 46 would be Bob Willis. You might see a Webb Pierce, Mel Tillis, Merle Haggard or Marty Robbins-but Wills was "the man" to my Dad.