Remembering when Toby Keith spoke at 2009 National Press Club Luncheon

When the death of country singer-songwriter Toby Keith, 62, was announced on Feb. 6, former National Press Club President Donna Leindwand Leger recalled when he spoke to a packed Luncheon before a trip to Afghanistan with the United Services Organization, his eighth USO tour and his seventh to the Middle East.

"He bear-hugged me so hard he lifted me off the ground, the chef made chicken-fried steak and he donated a signed guitar,” Leinwand Leger said.

Keith’s speech on April 21, 2009, touched on themes that many today would recognize like polarization and criticism of the media.

“What I see that’s unfair about our media today is everybody’s selling headlines so much that once you read -- half the time when you read the story, it never matches up to the magnitude of what the headline is that drew you in in the beginning anyway,” Keith said.

During the question-and-answer session, Keith said the news media often takes him out of context. “One line in one song outweighs one of the most successful songwriters and performers of the last 20 years,” he said, adding, he uses the media to promote his albums. “I embrace the hate” by going on shows that he implied were hostile to him but “every column said he’s got a new album.”

Keith may have embraced the hate to sell music but he was critical of "the extreme ends seem to create all the noise. They’re poison," he said.

"The polarization that happens in this country is boiling to the point to where I feel like living in middle America that it feels like a civil war to me," Keith said. "There’s so much hate on both ends that it’s hard to get anything accomplished in this country."

Many people would be surprised that he was a Democrat, Keith told the Luncheon. “I come from a family that’s never had one Republican on my family tree – ever,” he said.

Keith heaped praise on the military and the USO. He told the story of being on a C-17 when the flag-draped coffin of 1st Lt. Erik McCrae, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, was brought onboard.

In a light-hearted moment, Keith stopped Leinwand from asking a question by pounding on the podium with the gavel, “I’m just going to take over here,” he joked, smiled and added, “did y’all hear the one about … no.”

Here is a link to the Wire story about the luncheon in 2009.