Quote of the Day: Toby Keith Proves Faith Is Built, Not Borrowed

At the tender age of eight, Toby Keith got his very first guitar. Growing up in Clinton, Oklahoma, he spent summers in Fort Smith, Arkansas, working odd jobs at his grandmother’s supper club and sneaking up on the bandstand to play with whoever was performing that night. And by the time he graduated from high school in 1979, he had two passions—football and music—and one practical plan: follow his father into the Oklahoma oil fields.

So that’s exactly what he did. During the day, he worked as a derrick hand, but spent his nights fronting a honky-tonk band called Easy Money. In fact, his pager would sometimes even go off mid-set, sending him from the stage straight to the rig. But when the Oklahoma oil industry collapsed in 1982, he decided to try out for the USFL’s Oklahoma Outlaws as a defensive end. While he didn’t make the team, he never stopped playing music. Keith’s big break finally came when a flight attendant who’d seen him perform gave his demo tape to a Mercury Records producer. In 1993, his debut single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” hit No. 1 and went on to become the most-played country song of the entire 1990s.

What followed was the kind of career most artists dream about: 32 No. 1 hits, more than 40 million albums sold and—just three days before his death—election into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But Toby Keith didn’t build his life on accolades—he built it with faith. And that faith would ultimately to carry him through the hardest fight of his life.

🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 

Quote of the Day by Toby Keith

“You have to have your faith. You take it for granted on the days that things are good, and you lean on it when days are bad. It has taught me to lean on it a little more every day.”

In just a few simple sentences, Keith captures something most of us spend a lifetime learning: Faith isn’t something you reach for only in a crisis. It’s something you build—day by day—in the quiet moments when nothing’s wrong, so that when a dark time inevitably surfaces, you already know how to lean on it. Because you’ve spent every day building it—and the more you lean into it, the stronger it becomes.

Related: Quote of the Day: Garth Brooks Perfectly Explains Why Life’s Struggles Ultimately Become Our Greatest Gifts

Deeper Meaning of Toby Keith’s Quote—Keeping Your Faith in Dark Times

In October 2021, Keith received the devastating diagnosis that he had stomach cancer. He kept the news private for nearly a year while he quietly underwent chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. In June 2022, he decided to share his private battle.

About 15 months later, he performed for the first time since his diagnosis at the People’s Choice Country Awards, which were held at the iconic Grand Ole Opry. While his weight loss was evident, his spirits were high. He accepted the Country Icon Award and performed “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” The song carries its own remarkable backstory: Keith had written it years earlier after sharing a golf cart with Clint Eastwood at a Pebble Beach charity tournament.

Eastwood—two days away from his 88th birthday—mentioned he was about to film a movie. When Keith asked how he kept going, Eastwood replied, “I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let the old man in.” Keith went home, wrote the song that night and sent it to Eastwood, who used it in his 2018 film The Mule.

A few months later, Keith sat down with Oklahoma’s News 9 anchor Robin Marsh for what would become his final televised interview. When she asked how he made it through the dark hallways, he gave her an immediate answer that didn’t need any explaining: faith.

His mother Carolyn instilled that faith during Toby’s childhood. The singer’s father Hubert—a one-eyed Army veteran—gave him grit. Together, they built the foundation that would hold him steady through the kind of fear most of us pray we never know.

In that same interview, Keith said something that landed even harder after he was gone: “I just got to a point where I was comfortable with whatever happened. I had my brain wrapped around it and I was in a good spot either way. People without faith don’t have that.”

I also want to acknowledge that he wasn’t saying faith simply appeared when he needed it. He said it taught him to lean on it a little more every day. Faith—the way Keith described it—isn’t a lightning bolt that immediately appears when times get tough. It’s a habit, a muscle and something you build on those days when things are going just fine, so you don’t have to figure it out from scratch when the bad days arise.

On February 5, 2024, Toby Keith died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family. While he is deeply missed, his lyrics from “It’s All Good” demonstrate what life is all about: “We ain’t got a lot, but we don’t need anything. Covered in kisses, surrounded by love, showered with blessings from up above.”

Related: Quote of the Day: Kenny Chesney on Why Your Dreams Are Worth Fighting For

More Quotes From Toby Keith

• “I’ve walked some dark hallways. The Almighty’s riding shotgun.”
• “I just got to a point where I was comfortable with whatever happened. People without faith don’t have that.”
• “I lean on my faith and I just pray and lean into it. That was my rock.”
• “I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get, but I’m better than I used to be.”

Related: Next Up: