Toby Keith's Nashville legacy reflected in new NBC tribute special
Country stars from Luke Bryan to Lainey Wilson celebrated Toby Keith during a two-hour NBC special that now is streaming on Peacock.
"Toby Keith: American Icon" — a two-hour NBC special recorded in July in Nashville — honored the artist who died on Feb. 5 after a nearly 20-month bout with stomach cancer.
Performers at the event include Carrie Underwood ("A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action"), Eric Church ("As Good as I Once Was"), Brantley Gilbert and HARDY (collaborating on "How Do You Like Me Now?!"), Riley Green and Ella Langley ("Who's Your Daddy?"), and Ashley McBryde ("Wish I Didn't Know Now").
In a rare appearance in a black cowboy hat, Luke Bryan sang "Should've Been a Cowboy." Lainey Wilson rode her "Yellowstone" horse, Cowboy, to the stage to join Jamey Johnson for "Beer for My Horses." Darius Rucker joined for "God Love Her," Jordan Davis and Clay Walker paired for "I Love This Bar" and Tyler Hubbard joined Jelly Roll, HARDY, Jordan Davis, songwriters Jim and Brett Beavers, and the Warren Brothers for "Red Solo Cup."
Keith's enduring legacy
The vibe from the event highlighted Keith as not just a 20-time country music chart-topper, entertainer, proud patriot and supporter of the U.S. military.
Instead, a critical inflection point a decade into his career, where doubling down on his vision as a creator and savvy as an entrepreneur yielded incredible rewards, became worth revisiting.
This year would've marked Keith entering the fourth decade of his mainstream country career. Two decades prior, Keith cashed in on the power of his influence over American pop culture.
Country music, Nashville as that industry's hub and the nation at large have yet to recover.
How to watch the Toby Keith special
The show initially aired on NBC on August 28. It now is available for streaming on Peacock.
A lucrative artist-as-brand
Between June 2002 and December 2004, Keith sold well over 20 million albums and singles combined. It was keyed by 2002's post-9/11 anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (the Angry American)." However, the record's B-side, "Who's Your Daddy," also achieved chart-topping status.
The latter's combination of honky-tonk zydeco funk, rockabilly and R&B grooves reinvigorated the power of Keith's mega-successful 1990s country catalog.
Add to that the Western tropes and outlaw vibes of "Beer for My Horses," plus a power ballad double-down on patriotism via "American Soldier." With the total impact of those songs alone, in sound and style, Keith becomes emblematic of not just country success but of the most beloved, unforgettable parts of the mythology surrounding late 20th century American exceptionalism.
Ultimately, that success made him as lucrative of an American music brand in the early 2000s as Bon Jovi or Madonna.
By 2010, Keith's June 2005-debuted I Love This Bar and Grill name-branded bar and restaurant concept — named for his 2003 single "I Love This Bar" — had been franchised to over a half-dozen locations in airports, casinos and shopping centers nationwide.
The restaurant tripled its opening month's revenue target and quickly became one of America's top 50-grossing restaurants. According to Forbes, Keith initially grossed $12 million yearly from his restaurants from name-licensing agreements and a cut of restaurant revenues.
About the opening of a 20,000-square-foot dining and entertainment venue with an 85-foot-guitar bar in Phoenix in 2009, an attendee, Norma Ross, noted to Metromix Phoenix that Keith "(melted her) butter."
"He's not phony or pretentious."
Nashville's Lower Broadway mirrors Keith's legacy
After suffering financial difficulties between 2014 and 2020, only two I Love This Bar and Grill locations remain open in Oklahoma.
However, by 2013, Forbes estimated that Keith had never earned less than $48 million a year and surpassed $500 million in total wealth.
Keith's development of an "unpretentious" brand driven by such incredible wealth has a modern analogy on Nashville's Lower Broadway.
By 2025, the names of 17 country music stars, from Hank Williams Jr., Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks to Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Miranda Lambert, plus Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson, will be plastered on bars along Lower Broadway.
In 2023, 15 million tourists — many of whom are lured by destination honky-tonks like those listed previously — spent over $300 million in Davidson County.
To grow that revenue, in many ways, June's Music City Strategic Plan, released by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp., will continue to mirror Keith's successful blueprint to become a tourism industry leader, as nearly two dozen star bars already have.
Regarding Nashville's growth potential when considered under the guide of Keith's legacy, a quote from his longtime producer, James Stroud, says it best: "Toby is his own man. He knows what he wants to say and what the people want to hear."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Toby Keith: Carrie Underwood, HARDY perform in NBC special
