What was the inspiration behind Toby Keith hit 'Should've Been a Cowboy,' his career's 'foundation'?

More than thirty years ago, Toby Keith’s whole life changed in one night in a hotel bathroom in Dodge City, Kansas.

It was the night the inspiration hit for what would become his first single from his debut self-titled album and his first No. 1 hit.

Keith died peacefully on Feb. 5, "surrounded by his family," according to a statement posted on his social media after a multiyear battle with stomach cancer.

Here's where Keith got the inspiration for the song "Should've Been a Cowboy."

Inspiration behind Toby Keith's 'Should've Been a Cowboy'

In an interview with The Oklahoman in 2018, when Keith was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the song's release, the Oklahoma native said he was with a group of friends on a hunting trip when he was inspired to write what would become his breakout song.

“A guy said to another guy, ‘In all honesty, you should’ve been a cowboy,’ when a girl didn’t dance with him in his hunting clothes. And I thought, ‘Man, that sounds like a song idea,’ and it was all over me,” Keith recalled.

“I went back and we were all two hunters to a room, and my roommate was Freddie Cortez. He’s passed away now, but he used to own Chastain's and a bunch of country bars in town. Freddie went to sleep, and I didn’t want to wake him ‘cause he was hateful when you’d wake him up. I went in the bathroom, shut the door, wrote it down and put it in my bag and went hunting the next day. Came home, revisited it, and said ‘I’m gonna record this song.’

“It’s the foundation for me of everything.”

Released to radio in February 1993, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was the singer-songwriter’s debut single, and it galloped up the country charts, ascending to No. 1 in four months.

Although it only took Keith about 20 minutes to write it, the tuneful tribute to Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and the Texas Rangers became the most-played country song of that decade and set the Oklahoma native on a multiplatinum-selling, hall of fame music career.

Keith told The Oklahoman in 2018 that in every single show he'd played since, "I've never not played that song — no matter what."

“It’s like my pick of the litter as far as how important it was to changing my life – and a lot of people around me,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Toby Keith came up with first hit song 'Should've Been a Cowboy'