Toby Keith's daughter Krystal is remembering her late father. The singer was known for traveling overseas to perform for the United Service Organizations and military members.
However, he refused to let his daughter come with him. Keith recognized that it was dangerous. After all, Keith was flying to the Middle East for these shows during a time of war.
"I begged to go, but it was such a dangerous thing. He went into, like, dad mode," Krystal said. "He was like, 'No, no, this is really important work I'm going to do, and no, my daughter is not - It's not something where ... I'm going to put you in danger so you can go experience this.'"
She added, "Then as I became an artist, I was like, 'Hey, I want to go do those things,' and he still, as much as it meant to him, and he knew how important it was for him, he was still like, 'Hard pass on my daughter going to Afghanistan right now,' because he had been shot. I mean, his helicopters had been shot at. He had been in the middle of shows when mortar fire came down."
Toby Keith Has Close Call
Krystal described a particular occasion when Keith was at a base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Mortar fired rained down while he was on stage performing, sending him running for a bunker.
"I literally have, when we had his service, I found a picture ... There was an underground bunker, and he had like signed on concrete, something about like, 'I'm in the middle of a show and some idiot set off some fireworks during my show,'" Krystal said. Keith "signed it and had the date because they were taking on mortar fire and had to go underground."
Despite not letting his daughter go on USO tours, Keith loved them and loved performing for the military.
"I just thought that was super cool and really special to find. But, you know, he loved the USO tours, and I wish that I would have been able to go on some of those," she said. "I did spend time on tour with him — I opened for him from the time I was 14 on. I did the anthem. Anytime I'd go out on tour with him, I'd be like, 'Hey, can I sing tonight?' He'd be like, 'Sure, you can go do the anthem. You can come out during this song.'"
