YMMV / Toby Keith

• Complete Monster: In "Beer For My Horses" (ft. Willie Nelson), the Midtown Ripper—real name Jerod Turner—is a slimy Jack the Ripoff who goes around slashing prostitutes for his own evil pleasure. The Ripper kills seven women in the duration of the music video, then tries to graduate to Cop Killer, attempting to slash both the cop who dresses up as a prostitute to bait him out, and Detective Toby Keith.
• Covered Up: Keith wrote about 95% of his material, but it's happened a couple times:
  • "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action" was originally recorded by Hank Williams Jr..
  • He covered Sting's "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" as a duet with the original artist. The duet outpeaked Sting's original on the pop charts.
  • Frequent co-writing partner Scotty Emerick released his own version of "I Can't Take You Anywhere", a track from Keith's 2001 album Pull My Chain, as a single in 2003.
• Funny Moments:
  • "Red Solo Cup", with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics about drinking from the title cup.
  • Also, "I'll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again".
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Trailer Park Tornado Magnet joke from "Trailerhood" became this when Moore, Oklahoma was struck by devastating F5 tornadoes in 2013. At least half of the town was leveled during both tornado outbreaks and dozens of people were killed (including several schoolchildren). His home town.
• Sequel Displacement: "How Do You Like Me Now?!" was the second single off the album of that name.
• Signature Song: "Should've Been a Cowboy", "How Do You Like Me Now?!", "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue", "Beer for My Horses", etc.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Santa, I'm Right Here", from his first Christmas album, about finding a note from a poverty-stricken child:
  Oh Santa, if you can't find me
  We're livin' out here on the street
  But I'll be watchin' for you, you're not gonna forget me, are you
  Daddy says he knows you'll try
  But we might be too hard to find this year
  Oh Santa, I'm right here
  • "Cryin' for Me (Wayman's Song)", a sincere tribute to basketball player/jazz musician Wayman Tisdale.
  • "Who's that Man", a song about a divorced father watching the rest of his family move on without him.
  • "Don't Let the Old Man In" is a quiet, contemplative song about facing one's own mortality. Originally written for the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood film The Mule, it shot up to the #1 spot on the iTunes country charts after Toby sang it at the 2023 People's Choice Country Awards for one powerful reason; it was the first time he'd gone on stage since his cancer diagnosis the year before, and his performance was raw. Tragically, it would be his last; he passed away less than a year later.
  And I knew all of my life
  That someday it would end
  Get up and go outside
  Don’t let the old man in
• Values Dissonance: The music video for “As Good As I Once Was” has him grope an EMT. She gets revenge, but the whole thing is Played for Laughs.

---