The very first songs I ever bought on the Apple iTunes store for my second-generation iPod Nano were Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” and “American Soldier.”
The two songs have always held a special place in my heart for most of my life. When I made that purchase with an iTunes gift card I bought with cash at the grocery store, I was a skinny 12-year-old child who grew up in a military family. My first real memory of a major news event was 9/11, but because I was so young, I didn’t quite understand or remember the wave of patriotism that swept the country at the time.
But those two songs, released in the aftermath of that tragic day, along with his later hits “American Ride” and “Made in America,” always filled me with a sense of patriotic pride, and I wondered why more music stars didn’t regularly write songs about their homeland.
Today, I can give you a long-winded answer about how most musicians today are too self-absorbed to think about writing songs that are about things bigger than themselves. But I’ll save that piece for another day.
On Monday night, Keith died at the age of 62 after a battle with stomach cancer, and I found myself thinking about that skinny child with his brand new iPod, watching the progress bar slowly fill up as each song was downloaded.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
For as much as the rest of the music Keith made tapped into typical country music stereotypes of drinking and womanizing, his patriotic anthems will always be the songs that stand out to me. Their simplistic and genuine love of the American way of life offers a timeless tribute to this great country and the people who made her. How much better off would the soul of the nation be if Keith’s sense of patriotism were rekindled in the American psyche?
Rest in peace, Toby Keith, and may your legacy of patriotism be an inspiration for generations of Americans.