The loss of Toby Keith is still the talk of the town…as it should be because we are still mourning the loss of a country music great and celebrating all of his life achievements.
When news broke in the early hours of Tuesday morning that Toby Keith had peacefully passed, the internet was in hysterics.
“Toby Keith passed away 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.”
Since then, every corner of the internet has been flooded with colleagues, friends, and fans sharing kind words about the Oklahoma native and sharing memories of how his music touched them.
Zach Bryan was an artist who quickly took to social media to share some of his favorite lyrics of Keith’s and to express his sadness hearing the news.
Zach Bryan is no stranger to social media trolls, and his comments quickly filled up with comments from those who loved Keith and felt the same as him and, of course, some haters. While ZB shared a lot of Keith’s more iconic lyrics in his Twitter (Now X) rapid fire the morning the news broke, he never made the notion that those were the only songs in Keith’s catalog that were worthy of being remembered. So, when a user responded to him saying that we need to remember more than his patriotic anthems, ZB fired back.
“It’s a shame some people will only remember him for the boot in your ass stuff. He WROTE a lot of really great country songs.”
The user left on his Tweet, to which Byan swiftly responded.
“This pretentious stuff is so annoying, man.
Man made a living off of many great songs. His patriotic shit related to the people when it did for a reason; that’s a great songwriter. Celebrate it instead of making everything negative begging.”
While everyone is entitled to their opinions on how certain artists are perceived and how their legacy will live on, I believe that ZB has a solid point here.
If that lyric resonates with people, let it live on. If people gravitate towards Keith’s heartbreak ballads more, let them enjoy those. Celebrate all the aspects of his songwriting instead of fixating on one aspect of his catalog.
The wide range of lyrics his mind cooked up makes Toby Keith such a prolific songwriter. That needs to be celebrated, not diminished. So whether you’re blasting “Red Solo Cup” or “My List,” play those songs loud and proud…it’s what Toby Keith would have wanted.
“Red Solo Cup”
“My List”
