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Toby Keith, chart-topping American country singer, dies aged 62
Singer-songwriter who topped the US album chart four times had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021
As well as being a guitarist from childhood, he was a promising American footballer who went on to play with the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers, and also worked as a derrick hand in oilfields. Keith grew his already substantial conservative audience with Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American), a song written after the September 11 attacks in 2001 that addressed the US’s enemies and gloried in the subsequent conflict: “Man, we lit up your world like the Fourth of July … you’ll be sorry that you messed with the US of A / ’Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way”. He described himself as a “conservative Democrat” and offered support across the US political spectrum, backing presidential candidates including George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
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