Toby Keith Is BMI’s Newest Million-Air

Toby Keith

Toby Keith has often said that awards for his songwriting mean the most. The country superstar received more of those honors this week when he was recognized by performance rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) for several of his songs reaching more than 15 million airplays, including "How Do You Like Me Now," "Beer for My Horses," "She Never Cried in Front of Me," "God Love Her," "I Love This Bar" and "Who's Your Daddy."

This honor, known as the Million-air award, goes to songwriters, composers and publishers whose songs have had more than one million U.S. broadcast performances. Toby's awards were for both his songwriting and publishing endeavors.

"If you went back to the first pickup I had, there were three boxes of cassettes in there," Toby explains to The Boot of his love for songwriting. "There were probably 90 albums, and you would find seven or eight Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, four or five Charlie Daniels, some Roger Miller, Billy Joel, KISS, Elton John, Bob Seger, Hoyt Axton, Johnny Cash, the Eagles, Dolly Parton. As you look through that box at the music I listened to, the common denominator was that they were all singer/songwriters.

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