Country music star Toby Keith dead at 62

Singer-songwriter Toby Keith, who twice won the Academy of Country Music's entertainer of the year award, has died. He was 62.

Keith, who had stomach cancer, died peacefully on Monday surrounded by his family, according to a statement posted on the country singer's website.

"He fought his fight with grace and courage," the statement said. He was diagnosed in 2022.

Sometimes a polarizing figure in country music, the 6'4 singer broke out in the country boom years of the 1990s, crafting an identity around his macho, pro-American swagger and writing songs that fans loved to hear.

Over his career he publicly clashed with other celebrities and journalists and often pushed back against record executives who wanted to smooth his rough edges. He was known for his overt patriotism on post 9/11 songs like Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue, and boisterous barroom tunes like I Love This Bar and Red Solo Cup.

He had a powerful booming voice, a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour and range that carried love songs as well as drinking songs. Among his 20 No. 1 Billboard country hits were How Do You Like Me Now?!, Should've Been a Cowboy, As Good As I Once Was, My List and Beer for My Horses, a duet with Willie Nelson.

"I write about life, and I sing about life, and I don't overanalyze things," Keith told The Associated Press in 2001, following the success of his song I'm Just Talking About Tonight.

Keith worked in the oil fields of Oklahoma as a young man, then played semi-pro football before launching his career as a singer.

Eventually his path took him to Nashville, where he attracted the interest of Mercury Records head Harold Shedd, who was best known as a producer for the hit group Alabama. Shedd brought him to Mercury, where he released his platinum debut record Toby Keith, in 1993.

Should've Been a Cowboy, his breakout hit, was played three million times on radio stations, making it the most played country song of the 1990s. But Keith felt that the executives were trying to push him in a pop direction.

"They were trying to get me to compromise, and I was living a miserable existence," Keith told the Associated Press years later. "Everybody was trying to mould me into something I was not."

After a series of albums that produced hits like Who's That Man, and a cover of Sting's I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying, Keith moved to DreamWorks Records in 1999.

That's when his multi-week How Do You Like Me Now?! took off and became his first song to crossover to Top 40 charts. In 2001, he won the male vocalist of the year and album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Keith's final post on X: