The country singer’s appearances in Oklahoma were his first since June 2022, when he announced that he had been diagnosed with ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ.
Over the holiday weekend, Toby Keith triumphantly made his stage debut for the first time since revealing his stomach ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ diagnosis last summer. He performed two unexpected concerts.
On June 30 and July 1, the 61-year-old country singer sang two 2.5-hour concerts at his bar and music venue, Hollywood Corners, in Norman, Oklahoma.
In an Instagram post on July 1, he said, “Toby’s first rehearsal turned into a 212-hour pop-up show.” He performed all of the songs, including the Bus Songs.
Keith posted again the following evening, this time with more photographs of himself laughing and carrying a guitar beside longtime friend and business partner Scotty Emerick.
Keith’s first series of concerts came after he announced in June 2022 that he had been diagnosed with stomach ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ the previous fall and was having chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and sur:gery.
The “I Love This Bar” singer offered The Oklahoman a health update last month, saying he was “feeling pretty good” and planned to go on tour again by the end of the year if he could maintain his strength.
“In general, everything is moving in a really favorable direction. With ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ, you never know, so you need to be ready, he said. I have more wind. And I’m considering setting up shop with the band and performing somewhere for two or three days to see if I can make it through two hours.”
“All I have to do is see whether I can get through two or three nights of work and take a short break from this tre:atment, and then we’ll resume work,” he continued.
Keith, who is still taking chemotherapy, reports that his blood tests are improving and that his tumor has shrunk by roughly one-third. He also mentioned that he consulted a nutritionist and was undergoing immunotherapy.
As he told CMT in December, the singer needed “a little bit of time to just rest up and heal up” before doing so, but he had previously expressed a desire to perform if his health improved.
