Toby Keith’s Last Performance: Country Icon Played His Final Concert Just 2 Months Before His Death
Toby Keith kept performing until the very end. The country singer, who died on Feb. 5 at age 62, performed his last concerts in December to thousands of adoring fans.
Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021, but he didn’t let his illness keep him from doing what he loved. The man behind hits such as “Red Solo Cup” and “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” continued to entertain crowds even as his health declined. His final shows were at the Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas on Dec. 10, 11, and 14, just two months before his death.
Toby Keith didn’t want to ‘sit around here and do nothing’
After learning he had cancer, Keith took a break from performing. But in 2023, he returned to the public eye. He played a pair of pop-up concerts in Norman, Okla. on June 30 and July 1. In September, he made an appearance at the 2023 People’s Choice Country Music Awards, where he sang his 2019 song “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” He also received the first Country Music Icon Award. Then, in October, he announced that he’d be closing out the year with a stint in Las Vegas.
“I was gonna sit around here and do nothing, like I have been,” he said in an Instagram video announcing the shows. “Or [I could] get up and go outside and don’t let the old man in, you know what I mean?”
After an extended break from music, Keith was ready to get back out there.
“[This is the] first time in my whole life I’ve been off over two years,” he said. “I’ve never been off a year in my life. And through COVID and cancer, old devil’s been at me a little bit. I’ve got him by the horns right now, so instead of sitting around and waiting, we’re going to get the band back together.”
Toby Keith wanted to get ‘rolling again’ in his final Las Vegas concerts
The “rehab” shows were intended to “get the band back in sync, get me rolling again,” Keith said. Fans lucky enough to get tickets were treated to renditions of many of Keith’s most famous songs, including “Beer for My Horses,” “American Soldier,” and “How Do You Like Me Now?!”
“3 sold out shows in Vegas was a damn good way to end the year,” Keith wrote on Instagram after the concerts.
Those performances would end up being the last for Keith, who worked as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oil fields and played semi-pro football before finding success as a musician in the 1990s. He eventually had 20 number-one hits, including his 1993 debut single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” and was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump in 2021. In 2022, Keith went public with his cancer diagnosis.
In a January 2024 appearance on The Bobby Bones Show, Keith said he didn’t want to let his cancer fight rule his life.
“It’s going pretty good,” he said when asked about his health. “It’s a roller coaster and it takes a little while to get your brain wrapped around it. And then you get to a point where you just say, ‘Hey, this is what I do.’ You can’t let it define your future.”
On Feb. 6, Keith’s death was announced on social media.
“Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family,” read the statement shared on Instagram. “He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time.”
For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.
