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7 February 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Toby Keith, the singer-songwriter who penned the 1993 country smash hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” in a Dodge City hotel room, died Monday at age 62.
Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2022. According to a statement on his website, he “passed peacefully” while “surrounded by family.”
“He fought his fight with grace and courage,” the statement added.
Keith was a proud product of Oklahoma. An Okie through and through.
“Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was only one of his 20 No. 1 hit singles, but it was his first, and it was the most-played country song of the 1990s.
The song has strong ties to Dodge City.
The story, as told by Keith numerous times to the ‘Los Angeles Daily News’ and on country music radio, begins with Keith and a few buddies hunting for pheasant and quail in Dodge City in 1993. One night, the boys decided to go out to the Longhorn Saloon downtown for a steak dinner.
Lyne Johnson, the Executive Director of the Boot Hill Museum, picks up the story from there.
“One of the guys in their group kept asking a girl sitting near their table to dance, and she kept shooting him down. It wasn’t very long until one of the local cowboys in town came up and asked her to dance, and she said ‘Absolutely!’ and got up and danced. So, all the guys started hollering. One of them looked at the guy and said, ‘You should’ve been a cowboy, and then she’d have danced with you’,” said Johnson.
“She guns him down and everyone makes fun of the poor guy and he comes back to the table and a young guy, about half his age, swoops in and takes her to the floor,” Keith told the ‘Los Angeles Daily News’. “One of them turned and said, ‘John, you should’ve been a cowboy.’ I thought, well, I have to write that.”
The line stuck with Keith. The young songwriter went back to his room at the Dodge House Hotel. He went into the bathroom and closed the door so as to not wake up his roommate, sat on the edge of the bathtub, and wrote the song in 20 minutes.
The single was released on Feb. 12, 1993, and his self-titled debut album came out on April 20, 1993.
It was the No. 1 song on the country charts for four months.
“It’s pretty special to Dodge City. You know, just the nod to ‘Gunsmoke’ but also the cowboy way of life that we celebrate every day that the song has helped keep that alive,” said Johnson.
Johnson said she and the Boot Hill Museum pass along condolences to the Keith family and to his legion of fans.
“We’ll do our part to keep his popularity and legend alive like we do. Just the same as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.”
Johnson says the owner of the Longhorn Saloon at the time in 1993 was a sort of local legend himself. He was also the DJ that night, and he announced to the crowd, “Remember the name Toby Keith because he’s getting ready to make it really big!”