Henry Rollins’ Scathing Letter to Toby Keith—and Keith’s Perfect Rebuttal

Since his passing earlier this year, the public has had nothing but nice things to say about Toby Keith. Respectably so, the man was a gracious and humble individual always willing to give of himself it seemed. However, before his passing, Keith, like everyone in the spotlight, had critics. One of those critics was the Black Flag frontman, Henry Rollins.

The means in which Collins took to politely and intellectually challenge Keith was on his TV show—The Henry Rollins Show. The segment where it transpired was titled Letters From Henry. Rollins had done numerous of these bits with other celebrities like Anne Coulter. However, the one he wrote about Keith was arguably the most scrutinizing.

Keith’s Alleged Perpetuation of The Working Class Plight

One of the main critiques of Rollins’ expose is that Keith’s music is actually hindering the upward mobility of his blue-collar fans. Rollins writes, “If it were me, I’d want to be part of helping their situations. Rather than just suggesting they just do their 40 hours for the man and then go get f*%$@d and then providing the soundtrack for their beer-soaked self-destruction. Do you ever consider your music defeatist?”

It is this point that lends Keith’s fans an entirely new perspective on his music. Now, I’m sure this isn’t Keith’s intention. However, purposeful or not, Rollins does bring up a cogent argument for the harms of not only Keith’s music, but all country music.

Rollins doubles down on this notion, closing out his letter stating, “In the meantime, my hope is that you’ll stop convincing blue-collar workers that the best thing they could do for themselves is buy a $40,000 pickup truck on a $30,000 salary.”

Toby Keith’s Rebuttal

Keith’s counter-argument isn’t one that necessarily stands up for the reasoning behind his songs. Rather, it’s standing up for the kind values Keith lived by. “I will not come out of the box on somebody, especially that I don’t know, and critique their music. That’s not right and I won’t do it. We don’t bring a bunch of hate to the table,” Keith told Country Weekly.

Whatever side you readers might fall upon, the quarrel between the two reveals both intellectual critique and upstanding manners. Rollins does bring up some fascinating points, and Keith’s response embodies the very sentiments he’s known for—A conviction for kindness. This is exactly what Toby Keith fans remember him for before and after his tragic death.

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