Toby Keith Encourages Kids to Explore the Great Outdoors

Toby Keith was not a couch potato when he was a kid growing up in Arkansas and Oklahoma. He wasn't obsessed with video games and didn't have the option of sitting at a computer for hours, surfing the Internet. His fondest memories growing up include playing outdoors with the other kids in his neighborhood.

"I couldn't get enough of playing baseball in the yard," Toby tells The Boot. "In the neighborhood that I grew up in, there was a bunch of boys within two or three years that were my age. Every day of summer, we would get out the baseball mitts, get up against a brick wall, use it as a backstop, and we would set up bases. We would play baseball five or six days a week.

"Kids don't seem to play like that anymore," continues Toby. "It's funny, I drive over there in that area [where we used to play] sometimes on my motorcycle, and I look around, and there's no kids out. I make my 13-year-old son [Stelen] get out. He has to go outside and play. He can't just sit inside and play games. I make him get out and do stuff."

The "stuff" Stelen does, however, doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in following in the musical footsteps of his famous dad.

"No, he's not interested at all," declares Toby. "He likes music but he likes playing basketball. They get on a trampoline, it's got a goal up on it, and they do all these fancy dunks and stuff. They build tree houses."