Toby Keith's set for Tucson Mall 

Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill is coming to Tucson this fall.
The restaurant, with its emphasis on Southern cuisine and live entertainment from national and regional country artists, could open around Oct. 1 in the Tucson Mall, said Frank Capri, CEO of Phoenix area-based owners Boomtown Entertainment LLC.
Construction on the 20,000-square-foot space across from Cheesecake Factory has been ongoing since April, said Boomtown President Greg McClure.
"We can't wait to get opened," Capri said. "It's going to be a big venue, state of the art. Great food, great music. There's going to be nothing like it in Tucson."
This will be the second Arizona location for Toby Keith's; the first opened in Mesa in spring 2010. A third restaurant will open in Phoenix's west valley - think University of Phoenix Stadium area - later this year, Capri said.
Keith launched the restaurant a few years ago with three locations in his native Oklahoma. Since then, another dozen have opened, 11 of them owned by Boomtown. A location in Las Vegas is owned by Harrah's Las Vegas.
Toby Keith's menu includes Southern specialities such as barbecue ribs, chicken and pork, burgers and chicken fried steak along with he-man sounding appetizers and state-fair worthy desserts. Appetizers include Toby's Platter - a plethora of nachos, wings, mozzarella sticks, deep-fried jalapeno poppers and mac and cheese wedges, served with marinara, blue cheese and ranch dipping sauces. Dessert is highlighted by a fried Twinkie.
But the menu is not what lures country music fans to Toby's table. It's the chance to sit at the giant guitar-shaped bar - painted red, white and blue like the American flag - and watch a rising Nashville singer perform on a stage that's close enough to see the sweat on his/her brow.
The bars host live music three or four nights a week - including every Friday and Saturday night, McClure said - with artists ranging from freshly signed Nashville newcomers to fan-favorite Texas red dirt singers.
Upcoming shows at the Mesa location: Scott Weiland, former frontman for Stone Temple Pilots (who includes country as part of his repertoire as a solo artist), on Sunday; Granger Smith July 27; and Mark Wills Aug. 17.
Boomtown officials are confident the concept will fly with Tucson's strong country music fan base; Keith has a devoted following here that filled Casino del Sol's AVA in 2004, the last time he played a Tucson show.
"It's a great market for us," said Capri. "We love the town, love the people. We're going to be there for a long time."

 

Toby Keith’s ‘Red Solo Cup’ Becomes Singer’s All-Time

Toby Keith’s ‘Red Solo Cup’ Becomes Singer’s All-Time Best-Selling Single

 

Never underestimate the power of partying. Toby Keith’s party-hearty anthem ‘Red Solo Cup’ has been certified double platinum by the RIAA after selling two million digital downloads, which also makes it Keith’s career top seller. The news comes just six months after the song was certified as the first platinum single of  his career in January.
The second single from Keith’s album ‘Clancy’s Tavern,’ the song was written by the Warren Brothers along with Brett and Jim Beavers. “I have to give Jim Beavers most of the credit on this song. He drove the boat on it,” Brett Warren told Taste of Country last October. “He is just hysterically funny. Basically what he was doing with those lyrics was trying to make me, his brother and Brad laugh.”
The song was never intended to be anything other than lighthearted fun. But it was a match that started a big fire. “For better or worse, ‘Red Solo Cup’ is a song that will crawl into the folds of your brain and hatch babies . . . it works because Keith makes no effort to pretend this is anything but a simple and stupid ditty,” Taste of Country’s review said. Keith himself admitted the track was “like a nursery song stupid.”
That simple appeal propelled the video for the song to go viral upon its release, spawning more than 16.5 million views on YouTube to date. ‘Red Solo Cup’ reached No. 9 on the Billboard Country Songs chart, and Keith also took home the ACM Video of the Year award for it, too. Chord Overstreet and members of New Directions performed the tune on FOX’s smash musical TV series ‘Glee,’ while country comedian Cledus T. Judd has since parodied the track by recording ‘Double D Cups.’
“To record that song and to release a video on it … that’s insane!” Brett Warren told Taste of Country of Keith. “It’s so insane! I love him for it, because I really do think it’s the dumbest song he’s ever recorded, and it might be the greatest song he’s ever recorded, so I don’t know!”

 

Toby Keith More Than a Dozen Songs

Toby Keith More Than a Dozen Songs Deep Into New Album

His current gold-selling collection, ‘Clancy’s Tavern,’ may still be churning out hits, but as soon as his current Top 10 single, ‘Beers Ago,’ runs its course, Toby Keith will already have his new album prepped, as he has “14 or 15 things” already recorded for his 17th studio album.
“It’s the same stuff I usually do,” Keith tells Billboard of his forthcoming project. “It’s my world. It’s really difficult to put my finger on what I write about because I don’t really sit down and try to force anything. I only sit down and write when I have a good idea, and it can be about anything so there’s never really a theme or a preconceived idea of what I want the album to sound like. I write all year and then I go in, and I always over-cut.”
While Keith is prepared with plenty of songs in the queue, he’s not really sure which ones to roll out for the new album. “I don’t really know what 10 or 11 (songs) are going to make the album yet,” admits Keith. “I just go in and get a good vocal on everything and then I’ll start seeing which three or four gravitate to the top and I’ll start building the core of my album right there, and then I’ll fill in what I don’t have.”
One song has already become a clear favorite of the new album, with Keith speculating it as a future release. “Everybody heard it in the studio and was like, ‘You’ve got to release that at some point,’” he says of a track called ‘I Like That Drink Beer.’ The Oklahoma native also hopes to include a song for his golfing fans.
“[It] kind of puts everything into perspective for all the golfers in the world,” says the singer. “It lets you know if you’re not on TV, you’re not a very good golfer. I’ve played it about four or five times in public and got rave reviews on it.”
Though Keith is focused on the future, he also looks back in appreciation of the commercial achievements of ‘Clancy’s Tavern’ — more specifically, the platinum-selling crossover success of ‘Red Solo Cup.’
“I’ve done things like that before and they’ve gotten big with my audience but not big in the world,” Keith notes. “This was one of those deals where it just went to that next level, and you can’t foresee that; if you could, then everyone would be successful like that.”
“Somebody came up to me at the CMT Awards and said, ‘I doubt if you added all the winners up tonight they got as many hits total as (‘Red Solo Cup’), and I laughed because I don’t know how close to the truth that is, but it may just be, you know?” the singer adds, referring to the 20 million online video views.
With the release of the new album, Keith also hopes to celebrate 20 successful years in the industry with a gift to his fans. “We’re thinking about doing something to commemorate it, tour-wise,” says Keith. “But we still haven’t put a time on anything concrete yet.”
Until the anniversary rolls around in 2013, fans can catch Keith this year on his headlining Live in Overdrive Tour, with dates scheduled through the end of September.

Toby Keith Strikes

Toby Keith Strikes Again as the Incognito Bandito at Nashville Benefit

Just as advertised, the Incognito Bandito (aka Toby Keith) rode in from the trail Tuesday night (June 19) to delight a door-busting crowd at Nashville's 3rd & Lindsley nightclub with an hour-long program of cover tunes.

The Bandito was there to help pay medical bills for Jan Grantt, the cancer-stricken wife of Keith's bass player, Kevin "Swine" Grantt.

Also singing for the cause were Josh Turner, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley, the Sisters and Curtis Wright.

The singers were backed by members of Keith's road band and various Nashville session musicians.

The crowd began gathering when the doors opened at 6 p.m. By 8 p.m., when the show started, every street, alley and parking lot surrounding the club was thick with cars.
Keith went on at 10:55 p.m. and bowed off just minutes before midnight.

Keith ambled onto the stage unannounced and unapplauded, a guitar strapped to his back, while an auction was going on.

Waiting until the bidding concluded, he moved into the spotlight and blasted off with the Johnny Paycheck bad-boy lament from 1976, "11 Months and 29 Days." From there, he shifted smoothly into Roger Miller's bouncy 1964 hit, "Chug-a-Lug," to which the crowd swayed along happily.

Occasionally, Keith let the band vamp between songs while he thumbed through sheets of music stacked on a nearby stand.
With drums pounding like a pile driver, Keith marched fiercely into and through the Johnnie Taylor gambling standard, "Last Two Dollars."

"I just went over to the [Country Music] Hall of Fame for the first time in 10 years to see the Bakersfield exhibit," Keith told the crowd. "We're going to do you a Buck Owens song."
With that, he roared into "Truck Drivin' Man," the now iconic road celebration Terry Fell wrote and first recorded in 1964, but which Owens soon after covered in a more memorable version.

"If you haven't got satellite radio, you probably haven't heard this song," Keith announced as the band glided into Three Dog Night's dreamy 1973 travelogue, "Shambala."
Waylon Jennings' assertively folksy "Waymore's Blues" followed, then Keith's primal take of Bill Withers' 1971 classic, "Ain't No Sunshine."

Keith wrapped up the evening with soulful renderings of ZZ Tops' "Mexican Blackbird," Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" (1974) and the Chuck Berry-penned club standard, "Memphis."

With all the auctions between sets, it was a long and unevenly paced evening, made even more onerous by an audience given to carrying on loud conversations no matter who was onstage.

Then there was a gratuitous Bible-reading by the Sisters vocal trio and a prayer from Worley, who asserted that it was fine with him if his buddy-to-buddy chat with the Almighty drove the less devout away, an option, alas, not available to all.

Worley also performed "Have You Forgotten," his pro-war song from 2003 that sounded about as relevant this evening as "The Battle of New Orleans."

Still, with his commanding voice and larger-than-life presence, Worley was a real crowd-pleaser.

"They said to do three songs," he explained. "I thought, 'Hell, I'll do three No. 1's.' I'd like to say there were more. But that's about it."

True to his word, Worley began with "Awful, Beautiful Life" (2004), segued to the heartbreaking "I Miss My Friend" (2002) and exited with "Have You Forgotten."
When he substituted the original line, "Don't tell me not to worry about Bin Ladin," with "Now we don't have to worry about Bin Ladin," several in the crowd jumped to their feet and applauded wildly.

Turner also lighted up the proceedings, initially by singing two of his hits, "Your Man" and "Why Don't We Just Dance," and then by taking over an auction to bid up the price on his own autographed sheet music, picture and album.

Willmon opened the show with a two-song set that concluded with "On Again Tonight."

The always-buoyant Morgan came through with "This Ole Boy" and "Almost Home."

Working as a trio and each picking a guitar, Jackson, Cordle and Salley imparted a bluegrass feel via "Lonesome Standard Time," "Paper and Pen" and "No Future in the Past," the Vince Gill hit from 1993 that Gill co-wrote with Jackson.

Shepherd came through strong with "Look It Up" and "Sounds So Good." Thompson offered his current single, "Comin' Around," and his breakthrough hit, "Way Out Here."

Songwriter Curtis Wright sang his regretful rumination, "Guess That's Why He's God and I'm Not," as Keith adjusted his guitar and prepared to go on.