Toby Keith Gives Last Emotional Statement About His Wife
Toby Keith was a renowned country music star, and although you might know him best from his ground-breaking career he was just as passionate about philanthropy. Following a 2021 diagnosis of stomach cancer, he leaned on the support of his family to find the strength to keep going. Tragically, it was a fight he would lose: Keith passed away after a two-year battle, but his last thoughts concerned his loved ones, and his final dedication to his wife might just move you to tears.
Grandma started it all
Although he burst onto the music scene in 1993 the future country legend was a music star at heart long before that. In fact, the boy born Toby Keith Covel actually started playing guitar at the tender age of just eight years old!
Even from those early beginnings in his home state of Oklahoma, his music and family were intertwined. You see, Keith’s grandma had given him that first instrument, a kind gesture that doubtless meant the world to him.
Inspired by the greats
Keith began songwriting a little later: People magazine reported in a 2001 profile that he cut his metaphorical gums as a lyricist in his teens. He drew inspiration from some of the greats of the era.
In his youth Keith was into the Eagles and Willie Nelson, but initially he didn’t pursue a musical career. After his 1979 graduation he went to work in the oil fields, doing what he described as “typical roughneck stuff.”
Easy Money Band
Keith hadn’t given up on his music career; he still played Alabama country rock with his friends in a group called the Easy Money Band in bars at night. And it was via those performances that he met his future wife.
He fell head over heels during a chance encounter with a woman in a bar who also shared his career choice. Tricia Lucus — later Covel — was an oil company secretary, and Keith’s natural charisma drew her in.
Larger than life
In 2001 Covel told People magazine, “I was 19 and he was 20. He was just one of those larger-than-life guys, full of confidence.” Three years later in 1984 they tied the knot.
Keith didn’t just get a wife that day, though. He started his own family too, since Covel had a daughter called Shelley from a previous relationship. Following their marriage, Keith adopted her.