Revisiting Toby Keith’s 2010 PEOPLE Country Cover, from His ‘Great’ Kids to the ‘Thick Skin’ He Built as a Star

Back in September 2010, Toby Keith opened the doors of his Oklahoma ranch to PEOPLE Country for a cover story.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the country superstar showed off his extensive car collection, shared his passion for racehorses and, of course, beamed with pride as he talked about his wife, Tricia, and their three children.

Now, in the wake of Keith’s death at age 62 from stomach cancer, look back at the PEOPLE Country singer’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” cover.

Walk through the big iron and brick gates of Toby Keith’s Dream Walkin’ Farms outside of Norman, Okla., and you better play on. Family game nights happen early and often: basketball, racket, fishing and throwing Risk and Uno at the table. “I’m pretty good at all of them,” laughs Keith, 49. “But they’ll wear you down.”

Despite the competition, being with his family on his 160-acre ranch, far from the bright concert lights, long nights on the tour bus or the frenetic energy of the Nashville industry, is a relaxing oasis for the Oklahoma-born country star. “This,” he says, looking down the hill toward the pasture where the horses graze and his dogs are in a pack at his feet, “is about exactly what you want.” It took Keith and his wife, Tricia, 12 years to create their dream home on the rolling green plains of Oklahoma. “There was nothing here before,” says Keith. “Tricia and I knew what we wanted, and now it’s over.”

Toby Keith’s son Stelen posts touching tribute to his dad: ‘I love you cowboy’

“There” includes an 8,900 sq.-ft. main house featuring a state-of-the-art theater room and kitchen and 2,500 sq.ft. a cabin with space for swimming, relaxing and grilling (“I’m big on the grill,” says Keith). The property also includes a well-stocked lake where the family can fish for walleye, perch and catfish or just relax on the dock and watch the water come out of the fountain from the lake. Then there’s the two-story, eight-car, 6,000-square-foot facility. a garage with room for his three Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a black Ford Expedition sedan, and his prized collector cars—a ’69 Mach 1 Ford Mustang, a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass, a ’77 Pontiac Trans Am. (“It’s a Smokey and the Bandit car,” Keith says) and a ’63 Chevy Impala, restored to be a replica of his late father. “My dad used a chocolate brown Impala to take him to work in the oil fields when I was a kid,” says Keith. “This one is just like that and almost perfect.”

Another disadvantage? His racquetball court, where he and Tricia, who have been married 27 years, can compete against their three children — Shelley, 30, Krystal, 24, and Stelen, 13. “We can play at midnight if we want to,” Keith says. – Everyone in the family is good.

Keeping his family close and protected, despite his fame, is a huge priority for Keith. “I was raised by good parents and I have great children,” he says. “They don’t have any problems – none. They all grew up with me being successful, but they’re not hooked on that part of the business.”

Toby Keith with daughters Shelley and Krystal and wife Tricia in 2015.

Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

Shelley is married with a child of her own. Krystal wants to be a singer and songwriter like her father, but Keith insisted that she finish college first. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May 2009. “She’s recording for my record company this fall,” he says. “I feel good about that. She has a degree and she’s been working hard. We’re writing some songs together.” As for his youngest son, Stelen, Keith plays basketball with him and his son’s “herd of friends here about every night,” and has also coached Stelen’s soccer team for the past six years. “He’s 13 and a shoe size 13, so he’s a bigger kid than I was at his age,” laughs Keith. How does the team feel about having a superstar coach? “Kids do it better than adults,” he says. “They just said ‘Hey, coach! Can I come in?’ ”

Living in Oklahoma also allowed Keith to pursue his newest passion: breeding thoroughbred racehorses. His 300-acre training facility, 35 miles south of his home, houses several hundred racehorses; also keeps horses at tracks across the country. One of the most famous of those horses is the thoroughbred stallion Cactus Ridge, who retired undefeated in 2004. “I love racehorses; it’s exciting,” says Keith. “I’ve been studying pedigrees for years and we’ve won some big races.”

And being away from Nashville certainly didn’t slow down his music career. In December 2009, his label, Show Dog Nashville, merged with Universal South Records in a deal giving Keith creative control, and Forbes recently named him the country’s highest-paid star thanks to income from the label, tours and his national I Love This Bar & Grill chain. restaurants. “With the internet now you can live anywhere,” insists Keith. “When I have to go to Nashville on business, I can hop on a jet just six miles away and be there in a little over an hour.”

Krystal Keith ‘broken’ by death of ‘hero’ Dad Toby Keith: ‘Happy to say goodbye’

Toby Keith performs in September 2012.

Mediapunch/Shutterstock

Keith’s next professional goal is to have 100 million radio plays of the songs he’s written (currently about 68 million, he says), and with his new album Bullets in the gun, due in October, will have more opportunities to reach that number. His secret weapon? The voice recorder on his iPhone. “It’s the biggest thing that’s happened to me as a songwriter,” he insists. “God gave me a wonderful gift to be able to create songs, but you can’t keep everything, and this thing helps me preserve every idea that comes until it takes on a life of its own and becomes a song.”

If there’s one thing Keith would change about his life these days, it’s being misunderstood for what he considers his “perceived political agenda.” A former lifelong Democrat who registered as an independent candidate since the last election, Keith credits his father, who served in the Army during the Korean War, for instilling patriotism in his children and honors his memory by visiting the USO at least once a year. But “there is such a vicious political right wing and left wing out there, and because of my support for the soldiers, they labeled me as an open or warmonger,” the singer says. He recalls asking a country artist to record a song with him to raise money for the St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital Cancer Center. Judas; she refused, telling his manager that she could not be politically associated with him. But Keith refuses the rejection. “You get a thick skin early in this business,” he says. “And you learn what you’re willing to put up with and what you’re not. Bottom line? You’re your own man.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education