Krystal Keith was just eight years old when her dad released his debut single, and first number one, “Should’ve Been A Cowboy.” Since then, Toby Keith’s career sky-rocketed with other hits including “How Do You Like Me Now?!”, “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight,” “Beer For My Horses,” and so many more.
Krystal, a singer with an EP out, opened up about having one of country music’s biggest names as her father on the podcast Children of Song.
Because touring is a huge part of being a musician, Toby was gone during Krystal’s formative years for 6-8 weeks at a time. Even though this was the case, Krystal, now 32, says that he was very present for her childhood.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVgWKnhnfXa/?taken-by=krystalkeith
“I think it speaks volumes that the way I kind of remember childhood is I don’t really remember him being gone,” she said in the podcast. “When he was home, he was so present that I don’t remember the spans of him being gone.”
If you’ve seen Toby in concert, you know how big of a personality he has and how unapologetically outspoken he is, but to his daughter, he’s just a normal dad.
“He’s a lot more normal than people expect him to be,” Krystal revealed. “He’s exactly what you get of him in interviews and things like that.”
Having been in the music industry for some time, when Krystal expressed interest in wanting to pursue music as a career, Toby was adamant about her going to college first. Krystal always remembers him saying, “I earned all of this money and my kids have every opportunity to go to college.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDYcmiDzYEu/?taken-by=krystalkeith
“He didn’t want the industry to beat me up on being young and inexperienced,” she said. “His example was LeAnn Rimes. When she came out, she was so young and had this big huge voice that was amazing… but then as she grew up people still saw her as a kid.”
Toby told her, “I don’t want that for you. I want you to get life experience, kind of get your [feet] under you and get grounded on who you are.”
Even though they had a deal that college would come before a music career, he still took her on the road quite a bit, and she was able to meet some of country music’s greatest legends, including Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.
Now, you can sometimes find her on tour with her dad, and working on her own music.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlM3IzYAe9r/?taken-by=krystalkeith
As we previously mentioned, she recently released an EP titled Boulder, which features the single “Anyone Else,” a duet with Lance Carpenter.
Watch Krystal and Toby perform their 2004 single “Mockingbird” together in the video below.