Entertainment, Music - Air Force Times

‘Big Dog’ Toby Keith finds peace in own yard

Although Toby Keith’s latest album is called “Big Dog Daddy,” the country singer for whom confidence is never in short supply still considers himself an underdog.

“In this community I am,” says Keith, 45, who discussed the country music industry, his record label and his self-produced album while relaxing on his bus during a break from filming a video that will open his nationwide tour.

He has sold more than 24 million albums, has been named the Academy of Country Music’s entertainer of the year twice and recently was honored by BMI for having his songs aired 50 million times. His new album debuted this week at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Album and Top 200 album sales charts. But he still feels that he hasn’t been given the respect he deserves on Music Row, especially by Country Music Association awards voters. He’s been nominated 27 times but has taken home only two awards: top male vocalist in 2001 and top music video in 2005.

“The very same two years I swept through the ACMs and had entertainer of the year twice, I was sitting on the front of the CMAs getting zero,” he says.

He says he doesn’t know why. “You tell me,” he says. Is it because he’s not liked? “I don’t care; it never mattered.

“The hardest people to answer to was your fans,” he says. “It just makes you question the integrity of a system where the person who has the biggest year and is most nominated and has outperformed and been the No. 1 ticket seller, which I was in that time, to walk out 0 for 16.”

Because of these experiences, Keith says, he won’t attend any future CMA awards shows. “I’m done with it, but I tried to keep that quiet. I don’t want this to be sour grapes,” says Keith, adding that he doesn’t want his decision to hurt the other artists on his label. “It never worked for me; I gave it a full shot.

“I don’t want anybody to feel like they owe me anything because they don’t,” he says. “I’ve had the best career, and I wouldn’t change places with nobody. But that is one of a bunch of things that I’ve decided, ‘Hey, this isn’t worth fighting.’ ”

Own label means freedom

It looks like the former semi-pro football player’s fighting days are behind him.

After years of speaking publicly about his unhappiness with his treatment by the major labels, he now releases his albums on his own label, Show Dog Records. After the release of his 1993 self-titled debut on Mercury Records, he bounced around its sister labels before finding himself back at Mercury, which became part of Universal Music Group.

A few years later, label executives didn’t want him to release “How Do You Like Me Now” as a single, so he requested a release, purchased the masters to the song and signed with DreamWorks, which released the hit. But after a corporate merger, DreamWorks became part of Universal. “I ended up right back up where I started, and it was like I’d never left,” he says. “It was just terrible for me.

“So I went in and said, ‘I’m not doing this last album for these people,’ ” he says. He was contractually obligated to record one more album, so he told them that he would either release it under a joint venture with his own company or retire.

“If you was to add up all the money I’ve made selling CDs, and I’ve sold millions and millions, it’s not in the top three on my income list. Now it can be, because I own my own company.”

He opened Show Dog Nashville in September 2005, and the next year released “White Trash With Money,” a joint venture with Universal. “Big Dog Daddy,” which was recently released, is the first studio album that he solely owns. This is also the first one he’s solely produced, and he says he’s never been happier with an album.

“I don’t really have much I can complain about now,” he says.

“I don’t really have any cancers in my world as far as what I do for a living,” he says. “It’s very focused on what we do, and we get it done in timelines that we want to get it done under.

“I’m a different guy,” he says. “I was so overwhelmed by fighting for my right to do what I wanted to musically and with my career that it just consumed everything else, all my other time. I was on the phone probably an average of three hours a day fighting that, and I’m probably on the phone three hours a week now, max.”

Remainder optional

He said the label has already turned a profit, thanks to “White Trash With Money, which sold 1.26 million, and the soundtrack to “Broken Bridges,” which has sold more than 300,000 units. Although his last record didn’t come close to the 4.3 million sales each of 2003’s “Shock’n Y’all” and 2002’s “Unleashed,” he does make substantially more money per unit sold now. “If you sold a million under their terms, you might get paid a dollar a record,” he says. “They might tell you for every $5 we make, we’ll give you a dollar, but out of your dollar comes half of the total expenses.

“Now it’s flipped around. Now I’m just out the cost it costs to make the thing, promote it and market it, and then the rest you keep. It’s an exact reversal.”