Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” was the perfect song for the 2002 CMA Awards.
The Big Dog Daddy put together his iconic, patriotic song late in 2001 – shortly after the United States was attacked on September 11th. The unfathomable terrorist attacks, as well as the death of Keith’s father in March of 2001, inspired Toby to pen the song and release it in May of 2002.
Initially, Toby refused to officially record the song, and instead only sang it live when he was performing at concerts for military. In case you didn’t know, Keith was very passionate about giving back to the United States military. He went on 18 USO tours, and its estimated that he played in front of 250,000 active duty service members during his lifetime.
However, it quickly became apparent to Keith that “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” was incredibly powerful, and he was once told by a Commandant of the Marine Corps that it was his duty as an American citizen to record and release the song.
So Toby followed those orders and included the track as the lead single from his 2002 album Unleashed. The song ended up being Keith’s biggest solo hit, and it quickly became engrained with in the patriotic American culture with songs like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.,” and it was nominated for both “Song of the Year” and “Single of the Year” at the 2002 CMA Awards – though Keith didn’t win either of those awards.
How could such a patriotic song lose during a time when patriotism across the country was higher than ever post-9/11? Only because any even more poignant, American song took home those awards. Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” was also released in 2002, and ended up winning both song and single of the year. Jackson actually debuted the track at 2001 CMA Awards – two months after the September 11th attacks.
So though Jackson took home the CMA Awards in 2002 (5 in total), it was Toby Keith that took the stage to perform his American anthem. When the awards show took place on November 6th of 2002, it had been over a year since 9/11 left the United States devastated. The collective wound was still very fresh at the time, and Toby Keith’s passionate performance of “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” was just what the doctor ordered.
Keith’s performance is as memorable as they come, and the images of Toby’s red, white and blue guitar paired with an entire audience of country music artists and fans waiving around small American flags will resonate for years to come. Everyone in attendance that night will never forget the moment, and those that were watching from home and afar will always remember the tribute.
Toby Keith would go on to play this song live many times throughout his career, but one could argue that this “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” performance stands above the rest. RIP to a country music legend.
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