Country singer Toby Keith prepares for USO Tour

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A National Press Club luncheon was filled to capacity on the eve of Toby Keith’s Middle East USO Tour. On Apr. 21, the country singer spoke to guests that included members of the military.

He has sold more than 25 million albums featuring his hits, “Should Have Been a Cowboy,” “American Soldier,” and “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." But he has taken fire from the press, the music industry and the public. The latter song generated much of the controversy. As his song lyrics say, Keith told everyone, “I’m not a political guy. I never have been.”

“It really freaks people out when they find out that I’m a Democrat…” he said.

Dressed in his signature ball cap and a set of “camis” issued by the U.S. military, he related several anecdotes about comments “taken out of context,” and comments he said were never made. Keith challenged the crowd saying, “I want somebody just to report me the news.”

But Keith has also literally come under fire. Only a small handful of entertainers travel deep into combat zones, including small forward operating bases, and he has experienced being under attack up close and personal. Our troops, he said, go into bad places.

“We don’t just blow the whole place up; we go door-to-door, looking for bad guys. We draw fire, and then we fire back,” he said. “We don’t go in and fire. That’s not the rules of engagement for the American military.”

Keith said the troops have a tough order to deal with on a daily basis.

“You can’t know these things until you go to the forward operating bases where I go and see what goes on every day.”

He visits two forward operating bases on each of his USO tours.

“Sometimes there will only be 25 guys,” said Keith, the son of an injured veteran.

The guys on the ground do their job so good, that’s why I go. I feel secure when I’m in there,” he said. “And it took me a hundred shows in the forward operating zone to learn to trust how good our guys really are and what they sacrifice.”

He explained his controversial song saying he was motivated to write it because our military consists of volunteers that our elected officials choose to send into harm’s way.

“After 9-11, I wrote a song called “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” knowing that our military was asking a bunch of volunteers to go in and find justice for the people that died on 9-11,” he said. “If you read my song word for word, and don’t apply your agenda to it, either way, that’s all it says. It just says, “I want you to win. I don’t want you to die. I want you to go win and find the people responsible for 9-11.”

Although Keith said he was concerned about coming under fire by the press, his pre-meeting and the member’s reception prior to the luncheon put him at ease. And it was laughter and applause he drew when he said, “There’s enough military in here that I think we have the perimeter secured. So we’re in good shape.”

Responding to a question that asked what the toughest part about being Toby Keith is, he remarked: “It’d just be the publicity that comes with the political stuff.”

Saying he hated to be disrespectful, he finds it hard to just talk about his music when, “every interview starts off with something political, every time.”

“I’ll deal with it. I embrace it, and I can take it,” he said. “I will never, ever apologize for being patriotic, no matter what.”

Marty van Duyne is a contributing writer for the Stafford County Sun.