opinion
Country music legend Toby Keith died Monday evening at the age of 62 after a long battle with stomach cancer. We then reported on how Keith previously helped launch Taylor Swift's career in a big way. However, in the wake of Keith's death, Swift remained silent and refused to pay tribute to him publicly.
And now, country music star John Rich is calling her out on it in a big way.
Rich calls Swift
Rich took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to respond to journalist Matt Koch after he shared a 2005 video in which Swift gushed over Keith after he signed her to his label, Newsweek reported.
“It will be interesting to see what you say about Toby Keith,” Koch wrote. “Without Toby Keith there would be no Taylor Swift. Toby signed her to his record label and gave her her start. I hope she realizes that today.. as she should.”
Rich responded by asking why Swift remained silent about the death of the man who helped her so much in her career.
“When is @taylorswift13 going to share some words about Toby Keith? The man who discovered her, got her her first record deal? Taylor, where are you today? #TobyKeith,” Rich wrote.
In the video shared by Couch, 15-year-old Swift praised Keith after he signed her to his record label, as he was a major shareholder in Big Machine Records at the time, the Daily Mail reported.
“You're in the room and you can feel it. There's a power there,” Swift stated in the footage. “And you're just like 'Oh my God.'” “So I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I don't see him and say, 'Oh my God, that's Toby Keith.' .
Backstory: Here's how Toby Keith helped launch Taylor Swift and Blake Shelton's careers
Keith performed at Trump's inauguration
Of course, this was years before Swift became a radical liberal who constantly enjoyed preaching about left-wing politics to her adoring fans. Her silence about Keith's death may have been why he challenged the left to perform at Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration.
“I make no apologies for performing for our country or our military,” Keith said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly at the time. I have performed at events for past presidents [George W.] Bush and [Barack] Obama and over 200 performances in Iraq and Afghanistan for the USO.
In 2017, Keith defended Trump after his infamous “grab them by the ***” comment, noting that “guys talk like that everywhere.”
“Bill Clinton, everyone was rooting for him about getting a BJ,” Keith said, according to Newsweek. “I said to myself: This does not affect the way he runs the country.”
Keith was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Trump.
SWIFT policy
In contrast, Swift has repeatedly used her platform to attack Trump, and campaigned strongly for Joe Biden in 2020. That year, Swift accused Trump of “fanning the flames of white supremacy and racism” in response to comments he made condemning violence carried out by Trump. It has spread across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death.
“After fanning the flames of white supremacy and racism throughout your presidency, do you have the audacity to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?” she wrote on social media at the time, according to The Mail. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts”??? We will vote for you in November. @RealDonaldTrump.
RELATED: Megyn Kelly Reveals Why Taylor Swift Would Be Crazy to Endorse Biden — “If She Was Smart…”
Swift wouldn't be where she is today if it weren't for Keith, so her silence on his death is nothing short of deafening. Although there's no confirmation that politics is what prompted Swift to remain silent about his death, it unfortunately wouldn't be surprising if that were the case.
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