The Strange Lie Toby Keith's Daughter Used To Tell People About Him

Country superstar Toby Keith died in February 2024 at age 62, two years after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. Rising to fame beginning in the '90s, Toby was best known for his hits, like "Should've Been a Cowboy," "How Do You Like Me Now?!" and "Red Solo Cup." A career well spent, Toby was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame posthumously just weeks after his death, having initially been selected while he was still alive.

While he had a lot to be proud of during his lifetime, one of Toby's three children, Krystal Keith, loved to joke about her father's profession, telling others he was a plumber. "I think I thought everybody's dad had a job like my dad ... he might as well have been a plumber," she told Fox News Digital in August 2024.

Most would eventually find out the truth, but even then, Krystal kept up the jig. She explained that she went as far as to tell people her plumber father was named Mark. Krystal did sometimes go off-script, though. "My second favorite thing was to say Garth Brooks, because they were already, like, they knew he was a singer," she said. "They were expecting Toby Keith, and I'd be like, 'My dad's Garth Brooks,'" she told the outlet. "I never wanted to give them what they expected."

Toby Keith likely wasn't bothered by the fact that his daughter, Krystal Keith, downplayed his incredibly successful career. In fact, he and wife Tricia Lucus, who are also parents to Shelley and Stelen Covel, gave their kids "an incredibly normal childhood" despite the unprecedented levels of fame they encountered, according to Krystal. "So it wasn't like our lives changed drastically. It was just, the things we were able to afford became a little bit different. My mom wasn't stressing about, you know, when the light bill was getting paid," she told Fox News Digital. 

Krystal also mentioned that the Oklahoma family lived in a trailer at one point during her childhood. Toby, who was no stranger to the trailer park life, paid homage to his mobile home years in his 2010 song, "Trailerhood." It's unknown how long Krystal and her siblings lived in a trailer, but given that Krystal was born in 1985 and her father didn't make it big until the 1990s, it was likely home to her for more than a few years. After all, as she told AARP: "I was 8 when he got his record deal and released 'Should've Been a Cowboy.' We watched our life shift a little bit, but he was always the same person, steadfast in his work ethic and his belief that things would work out."

She also told Fox News her parents kept her grounded no matter what was happening in their bank accounts. "We could have been rich then. I didn't know the difference. We never wanted for anything ... we always had everything we needed," Krystal said.

As Krystal Keith got older, she began following her dad Toby Keith into the country music industry. Krystal got her first taste of the biz when Toby featured her on his 2004 song, "Mockingbird," which the duo performed together at the CMA Awards later that year. In 2013, she released her debut album "Whiskey & Lace" under her father's label Show Dog Nashville. This album included the track "Daddy Dance with Me," which she first played for her father at her 2010 wedding to Andrew Sandubrae. In 2018, Krystal followed up with an EP titled "Boulder" before quietly slipping out of the spotlight. 

Krystal told AARP her father was always supportive of her decision to pursue music. "He was always very supportive, but he was gun-shy of letting me get out there too early, afraid I wouldn't be able to handle the stress," she said. "I have a strong personality. He said, 'People will tell you you're the best in the world or the worst. You're neither. You're somewhere in the middle. You need to do your thing and not care what other people think.'"

While she hasn't been active in a few years, she did return to the stage in August 2024 to perform her dad's hit song "Don't Let the Old Man In" during the "Toby Keith: American Icon" TV special (above). It's unclear if Krystal plans to put out new music, but following her father's death, she wrote on Instagram that she will "forever honor him" and called him her "hero."