In one of the last interviews he gave before his death on February 5, 2024, Toby Keith opened up about his faith and belief in “a Creator.”
Roughly one month before he died, Toby Keith sat down with a local Oklahoma news station for what would be his final in-depth interview. When asked how he explains his faith, the one thing he credited with giving him peace through his cancer journey, he told the reporter that he has always prayed and has always believed “in a Creator.” He recalled a story about how he defended his beliefs to an agnostic during a road trip years ago.
“I was rolling down the road one time with one of my musicians from the old bar band days,” Toby recalled. “Me and him were the only two awake. I was driving and he was sitting up front.”
Toby recalled the two talking about whether or not God existed and the singer asked his friend, “So you don’t believe in a creator at all? We’re just like amoebas that swam upon the bank and grew up and when we die they just stick us back in the ground? Do you not believe in God?”
His friend responded, “Well, He’s never presented himself to me…I’ve never seen Him.”
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Toby replied with a question of his own. “Really? But, you believe in UFOs,” a belief his friend confirmed. “Have you ever seen one?” Toby asked, causing his bandmate to rethink his argument against the existence of God.
Toby went on to explain how he knows that God exists simply through the natural phenomenon that happen around us every day.
“I can believe that there was a Creator that created all this. Energy from the ground. We have electricity in the ground. We have an ozone. We have an earth that’s full of energy … lightning strikes the ground somewhere in the world every second of our life, and it energizes this. And the ozone holds it in,” Toby shared. “We have air. We don’t have air in space, but something’s holding all that air in. Is this all just a natural occurrence or is this things talking to each other … This thing spins for our gravity, holds us on this big blue and green marble. There’s just too many things.”
Near the end of the interview, Toby was asked which Bible verse or scripture he found comfort in.
He also addressed criticism that he’s faced about his faith and the fact that some questioned it based on some of his life choices.
“I spend so much time talking about my faith to somebody in my world that might have difficulty understanding it. John 3:16 is so simple,” Toby said, before implying that he’s been criticized for not going to church, cussing, and drinking wine.
“It doesn’t say, ‘If you do all of these things. If you give this much money and you go to this church this many time, that you go to Heaven.’ It says, ‘Believeth. Whosoever believeth would not perish but have everlasting life.’ It doesn’t say, ‘Whoever believeth and does this laundry list over here.’ It says, ‘Believe,'” Toby preached.
Toby Keith died February 5, 2024, at the age of 62.
The “Wish I Didn’t Know Now” singer had been battling stomach cancer for two years at the time of his death. During his final months, he returned to the stage, visibly weaker and thinner, but with a voice as strong as ever.
One of his most memorable performances came in September 2023 when he made his first television appearance since his diagnosis. He took the stage at the People’s Choice Country Awards where he performed his self-penned tune “Don’t Let The Old Man In.”
He later admitted that he fought sickness and weakness to perform that night, but it was a moment that will be remembered as one of the most powerful and emotional moments in country music history. Watch Toby Keith sing “Don’t Let The Old Man In” in the video below.