Toby Keith Named His Easy Money Band in Honor of His First Gig
Every musician remembers their very first gig, where the nerves were most likely rattling and a few bucks were handed over at the end of the night. Toby Keith's first show made such a lasting impression that he ended up naming his Easy Money Band after the memory.
The singer's first paying gig was a wedding, and he got a cool $1,000 for playing it. The fresh-out-of-high-school Keith said it was "easy money," and the name for his band derives from that moment, according to Billboard. (We can almost imagine a young Keith looking down at the check, shaking his head in disbelief and excitement.)
But music wasn't always easy money for the country superstar. The band, made up of Keith and several friends, played in bars for $35 bucks per person a night plus free beer -- quite different from that first four-figure payment. The guys toured Oklahoma and Texas, and at the time, Keith was employed in the oil fields, so he sometimes had to leave in the middle of a concert if he was paged to work. Those days are long past him, but Keith's first gig is forever immortalized in the Easy Money Band.
Check out Taste of Country‘s You Think You Know Country? video above to learn more about Keith's rise to the top, stint in semi-pro football and more.
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