Carrie Underwood is mourning the loss of her good friend, Toby Keith. The “Out Of That Truck” singer spoke out about Keith’s passing in a heartfelt post shared on social media.
“Saddle up the horses, Jesus, ‘cause a true blue COWBOY just made his ride up to heaven!!!” Underwood wrote. “Introduce him to all the Okies and sign that boy up for the choir! We’re gonna miss you, Toby, but my heart has no doubt that you are standing in the presence of our King right now!!! See you again someday, friend.”
Underwood honored Keith at the recent BMI Awards, where he was given the Icon Award.
“It was artists like you that taught kids like me that greatness is possible,” Underwood said at the time.
When receiving the prestigious award, Keith spoke about his somewhat unconventional journey in country music, especially as a songwriter.
“When you get older and you look back at your cassette tapes or your CD, it’s like everybody that rocked country, R&B, whatever it was, the artists that I had were songwriters,” Keith said. “They weren’t artists that covered music. They were songwriter/artists. Something in my gut, down in my core, said that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I’d make it as an artist, but I knew if I wrote as good as the next guy, that somebody might sing one of my songs.”
Keith passed away on February 5. He had been battling stomach cancer since 2021. At least until recently, the country music superstar was still fighting the illness, both with chemotherapy and holistic treatments.
“I feel pretty good. It’s a rollercoaster all the time with this stuff,” he said last fall on the Sellout Crowd podcast. “I have the resources financially and otherwise to get the best treatments I can get. They’re taking great care of me and I’m getting all the latest stuff you can get. In fact, I’m going tomorrow to Florida to see another guy down there, that’s got some other kind of treatments, and I’m trying them all. I’m throwing the kitchen sink at it.”
Keith was one of the biggest hitmakers in country music, but he admitted he was still surprised by fans’ reaction to his illness.
“The love that poured out from the whole world when I announced it was overwhelming at first,” Keith told News on 6. “I didn’t know anybody really cared that much.”
