Advertisement

No, Toby Keith hasn’t recorded a song to benefit Syrian refugees

Country singer Toby Keith, shown performing in 2013 at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, is subject of a bogus Internet report that he would donate proceeds from a new single to help resettlement efforts for Syrian refugees.

Country singer Toby Keith, shown performing in 2013 at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, is subject of a bogus Internet report that he would donate proceeds from a new single to help resettlement efforts for Syrian refugees.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Share via

Reports that country singer-songwriter Toby Keith is donating proceeds from sales of a new single to resettlement efforts for Syrian refugees are, in fact, fiction.

The Oklahoma singer’s spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that there was no such recording forthcoming, despite reports widely circulated on the Internet and over social media outlets.

The bogus report that Keith would donate proceeds from a new charity single titled “You’re Welcome in My House” began with an article on a parody website similar in tone to the Onion. Still, several news outlets, and many Facebook users, picked up the item and passed it along as legitimate news.

Advertisement

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter >>

Not that Keith might not consider such an effort. Although he generated a polarized debate with his musical response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York with his song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)”, in which he sang “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way,” Keith has not engaged in anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In a 2009 interview with CNN in which he was asked about the issue of “illegal aliens,” Keith said, “I’ve been around Mexicans my whole life, and they are wonderful people. They’re very family-oriented, very religious -- a lot of them -- they have great family values. They’re hard-, hard-working people. Somehow we have to secure the border, but it’s not because of the great people who are crossing the border. It’s to protect that border from being infiltrated by radical, extreme terrorists. That’s the only thing I think they need to stop.”

Advertisement

He also seems unconcerned about what is said about him — true or false — on the Internet.

“I’ve learned to embrace the booger-eatin’ nerds that sit around in their underwear and type blogs,” he said in the same 2009 interview. “I’ve embraced that. So I use them to my advantage. They’re going to do it whether I’m a good guy or a bad guy.”

Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter. For more on classic rock, join us on Facebook.

ALSO:

Advertisement

House votes to block Syrian refugees despite White House veto threat

How California’s congressional delegation voted on the bill to block Syrian refugees

Frenzy about Syrian refugees echoes the unfounded fears of past eras

Advertisement