With 20 No. 1 singles under his belt since his 1993 debut album, Toby Keith knows a thing or two about what it’s like hearing yourself on the radio. Below, the country star remembers hearing his music coming over the airwaves for the very first time.
[My record label at the time], Mercury, had a thing called the Triple Play, and it was three acts: It was me, Shania [Twain] and John Brannen. They said, “Here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to put three of you out with a band. In six weeks, you’re going to hit six major cities, you’re going to do lots of press, you’re going to do 30 minutes each, you’re going to promote your new album, and we’re going to put three singles out on you guys two weeks apart.” And so, I think Shania went first, John went second, and they put mine out last, I believe.
And then they started the tour, and we loaded up on buses in Nashville. There was a crew on one bus, a band on another and artists and [a] tour manager on the third one. We rolled north out of Nashville, and somewhere in the Bowling Green, [Ky.], area — my record had been out for about a week maybe; I hadn’t heard it anywhere — and we were sitting in the back lounge, middle of the day, had the [radio] on, and a DJ came on and said, “Here’s a hot new song that we’ve only played twice that we’re getting lots of phone calls on. It sounds like a hit to me! A new guy named Toby Keith,” and they played it right there.
The song was “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”
This story was originally written by Pat Gallagher, and revised by Angela Stefano.
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This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TheBoot.com
