On January 5, 2024, a much thinner, Toby Keith made a guest appearance on The Bobby Bones Show. During his appearance, Toby shared a health update. Bobby asked Toby, “How’s your health? How’s everything going?”
Toby wore a gray hat over his ears and sunglasses over his eyes, but he looked and sounded optimistic as he discussed his cancer journey. Toby admitted, “It’s going pretty good.” Although he also described his health as a “roller coaster.”
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Toby said it took a little while to get his brain wrapped around what was happening to him. Then he told Bobby, “You get to the point where you just say that, hey, this is what I do.” Toby meant that you can’t let cancer define your future.
Toby’s Stomach Surgery Affected His Ability to Sing
One of Toby’s most significant challenges has been stomach surgery to remove cancer. The surgery involved stitches in Toby’s diaphragm. He later described how that part of his stomach surgery had affected his ability to sing.
Toby explained to Bobby that the diaphragm is a muscle, and singers like him require a strong and healthy diaphragm to perform. Toby said the stitches in his diaphragm initially made it harder for him to sing. He told Bobby that he’s had to work hard to get where he can even sing properly again, especially when it comes to singing “really hard and really, really violent and loud.” Toby also said he “didn’t have that last 10% on the bottom” of his diaphragm following his stomach surgery, so he couldn’t just belt out practically any song as he did before.
Toby brought up a May 3, 2017, concert as an example. That night, Toby performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He sang a cover version of “MacArthur Park.” Toby said to Bobby, “It was like opera stuff.” Toby just isn’t sure if he can do that anymore. He said that his current set list “is no problem.”
Although Toby did admit to Bobby that he’s got ups and downs with his voice, he said, “It’s getting better all the time, but I went through about three hours yesterday.” Toby said that the three-hour rehearsal was “off and on.” He will keep “working it up” and trying not to have any issues rehearsing his songs or performing live.
Finding His Groove on Stage Was Easy
Another issue that Toby worried about was remembering his song lyrics. Toby explained to Bobby that he’s barely worked “a handful of shows” over the last three years. Although he said he worked “for 27-28 years” consistently, before that, Toby admitted that he felt concerned about “remembering all the words.”
But Toby said that “getting completely away” from his song lyrics made him nervous about forgetting lines. He told Bobby that he decided to use a teleprompter during his performances. When Toby returned to the stage last year, he discovered he didn’t need the teleprompter. The lyrics came flooding back to Toby, and according to The Bobby Bones website, “it was easy for him to find his groove.”
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Toby performed three sold-out shows in Las Vegas this past December. The shows took place at the Dolby Live at Park MGM, and the venue reported that Toby’s shows sold out in minutes.
Toby Keith’s “I Won’t Let You Down” Is a Highlight of His Shows
Toby owns a roadhouse in Oklahoma, and the building has a lot of history. At one time, the infamous crime duo Bonnie and Clyde hid in a cabin behind the roadhouse. When Toby found out that the roadhouse was scheduled to be torn down, he bought the roadhouse and cleaned it up to reopen it to the public. Toby also put a stage inside the roadhouse.
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One night, following his surgery, Toby decided to get up on stage at the roadhouse and perform incognito. When the local people found out it was Toby performing, they lined up down the block to get in. He wanted to test how long he could perform without needing a break. Shockingly, Toby ended up doing two three-hour gigs at his roadhouse.
Toby has also added a song to his setlist. This particular song became more popular than ever during the COVID shutdown. The song “I Won’t Let You Down” is now a highlight of Toby’s show.
He’s happy to be back performing all his old number-one hits, too.
