American country music legend Toby Keith has died at the age of 62 after a three-year battle with stomach cancer.
Born Toby Keith Covel in Clinton, Oklahoma in 1961, Toby Keith became interested in music via his grandmother’s supper club in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she would lay on bands for the clients.
His best-known hits include debut song Should’ve Been a Cowboy, which is topped country charts in the early 1990s; the 1999 single How Do You Like Me Now?, Beer For My Horses (2003) and As Good As I Once Was (2005).
He released 19 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and five compilation albums, which achieved worldwide sales of over 40 million albums across his career.
As an actor, Toby Keith’s credits included the 2005 drama Broken Bridges, directed by Steven Goldmann, in which he played a washed country musician living in small town Tennessee, in a cast also featuring Kelly Preston, Burt Reynolds, Tess Harper, and Lindsey Haun.
Toby Keith also wrote and starred in the 2008 movie Beer for my Horses, based on the hit song of the same name, which was a duo with Willie Nelson.
Toby Keith was first diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021, and went public with his health battle the following year.
He is survived by his wife Tricia Lucas and their three children – daughters Shelley Covel Rowland and Krystal Keith and son Stelen Keith.
His family announced his death in a post on Instagram which read: “Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family. He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time.”