Toby Keith Doesn’t Hate Canadians!

Toby Keith doesn't care what the press writes about him. The superstar has come to learn over the course of his 17-year career that it's sensational rumors that shock the reader into buying papers and lining the pockets of tabloids.

"Once you come to that decision, you find out you can focus all your energy on stuff that makes you happy and stuff that makes you more successful," Toby tells The Boot. "If you sit around stewing, you'll never get anything accomplished, and I'm growing my empire every day."

There was one rumor, however, that did get under Toby's skin. In 2005, the buzz was that Toby supposedly refused to perform at a concert here in the States until all Canadians in the audience left the venue. The rumored reasoning behind the request was that Toby had supposedly indicated at one time or other that Canada wasn't doing enough to help U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Because this particular story lacked credible details, such as date and location of show, it was deemed a baseless rumor, concocted to shock the reader. Although, the rumor seems to dog Toby whenever he tours Canada, leading him to make it emphatically clear to the Canadian press that he does not hate Canadians.

"Absolutely not," Toby tells the Regina Leader-Post newspaper. "I was playing in Alberta way before I got a record deal. We'd play up there six weeks at a time. I had very good friends in Calgary. We played Red Deer and Grande Prairie.

"Somebody read a headline somewhere, and they just assume that if you want to be free and you support the troops that you hate everyone who isn't American," Toby continues. "There's a lot of people in the world that have nothing better to do than sit around in their underwear, living in their mom's basement, and that's all they do all day. You can't diffuse it all, but it doesn't stop me from coming back and having friends there."

Some situations require comment, such as this one, but Toby recognizes most do not. "There's so much data coming in from so many people who are earning their living doing that, selling headlines, you just can't diffuse it all and it would drive you crazy to try," he continues. "Ninety-nine per cent of the time I don't even respond at all, but if it's real slanderous, I will. I'll make a statement. But most of the time, it really doesn't matter."

One such statement was made by Toby simply through his actions onstage at the 2008 Craven Country Jamboree in Canada. During the performance, he thanked Canadian soldiers for their efforts, before turning his guitar over to display the Canadian flag painted on its underside.

"No one knows me, and people think they can learn about someone from the headlines, but I just know that I live in a free country," Toby reflects. "At the end of the day I sleep in a free country, it's my birthright. We have some wonderful heroes that go defend our right to be free, and they have for over 200 years ... and I appreciate that. That's all there is to it. And whatever anybody else thinks about it, I don't really care."

While he may not care, he doesn't feel any kinship to tabloid writers. "After the first five years in this business you about been hit as hard as you're going be hit: you understand that there's people out there who make their living doing that, and that without that, they can't survive," Toby says. "Without you, they can't make it, and I don't need one single one of them to make it."

Toby's latest single, 'Somewhere Else' from his current album, 'Bullets in the Gun,' is at radio now. Watch him perform it live in our studio below.

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