For more than a decade, Toby Keith had been the one standing at the microphone, thanking America’s service members. On a spring night in Las Vegas in 2014, he finished his last song expecting to walk off the stage. Instead, the USO stopped him and handed him an award he never saw coming: the Spirit of the USO Award.
A Night Built to Honor the Troops
On April 7, 2014, country music’s biggest names gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the taping of ACM Presents: An All-Star Salute to the Troops. The special aired on CBS on May 20, 2014.
Toby Keith was there to do what he had done for years. Rather than lean on his biggest radio hits, he brought songs he had written only for the troops. “I have a bunch of material that I’d written over the last 11 years that I only perform for the troops,” he explained, describing them as little funny songs, some of them a bit too rough for regular radio.
Earlier in the evening he performed “Call A Marine” with Marine Lt. Col. Mike Corrado. Then he closed the show with “American Soldier.” Before the song ended, a dozen service members joined him on stage while the crowd waved and cheered.
The Surprise After the Last Song
As far as Toby Keith knew, his part of the night was over. Then retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John I. Pray Jr., the president and CEO of the USO, stepped forward.
“There is one individual the USO and ACM would like to honor tonight.”
That individual was Toby Keith. The USO presented him with the Spirit of the USO Award, a commemorative award that even carried a line from one of his own chart-topping songs.
Toby Keith looked stunned. He mouthed, “That’s awesome.” Afterward he admitted, “That caught me off guard a little bit.”
Then he gave the room the only answer he had ever given:
“I want to thank the USO. I salute the troops. God speed.”
Why the USO Chose Toby Keith
The award was not for one concert. It was for twelve years of showing up.
Toby Keith first toured with the USO in 2002, playing for more than 3,000 troops in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. He kept going back. Over the years that followed, he played nearly 300 shows, in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Djibouti, Guam, and Kyrgyzstan, and on ships at sea. By 2014, he had performed for more than 250,000 troops in 17 countries.
General Pray said Toby Keith’s impact stretched “far beyond our troops and families,” and that he believed “the debt we owe our brave servicemen and women can never fully be repaid.”
Toby Keith, being Toby Keith, answered with a joke. He said he had seen a need that Bob Hope left behind, then added that he couldn’t bring Marilyn Monroe along.
The Man Who Never Expected the Thank You
That is what made the moment land. Toby Keith had spent years flying into war zones, playing on makeshift stages, and writing songs no civilian audience would ever hear, all to tell the troops they were not forgotten. He never treated it as something that deserved a reward.
So when the thank you finally came back to him, in front of a packed arena and a row of service members in uniform, he did not give a speech about himself. He turned it right back around to the troops, the same way he always had.
Toby Keith passed away on February 5, 2024, at the age of 62. For many of the men and women he played for, the songs they remember best are the ones he only ever sang for them.
Did you ever see Toby Keith perform for the troops, or hear one of his USO shows? We would love to hear your memories.