Toby Keith, who has died at 62, had a strong history with Green Bay, from Resch Center sellouts to national anthem at Lambeau
Kendra Meinert
Green Bay and Toby Keith shared a long and strong history that included sold-out concert after sold-out concert, the national anthem at a bitterly cold Lambeau Field and a friendship with Brett Favre.
There was even a time that local country station Y100 (WNCY-FM) claimed Keith sold more albums per capita in Green Bay than anywhere else in the world.
Keith — the country star whose swagger matched that of No. 1 hits like “How Do You Like Me Now?!” — died Monday at age 62 of stomach cancer.
In the 2000s, he was as good as a guaranteed sellout every time he announced an arena stop in Green Bay, which was often. He performed in 2002 at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena and then made four tour stops at the Resch Center that same decade: with Willie Nelson in 2003, with Ted Nugent in 2005, with Joe Nichols in 2006 and with Jack Ingram in 2009.
He’s one of just two acts who has played back-to-back nights at the Resch Center twice. Only Eric Church has done it, too.
His popularity in northeastern Wisconsin at the time was such that he could headline the Country USA festival in Oshkosh in June 2006 and then four months later, play back-to-back shows at the Resch Center in October for his Hookin’ Up and Hangin’ Out Tour.
“I think everyone up there kind of sees eye to eye on the way I see things. I don’t get very many complaints out of there as far as my political stances and the issues I stand up against,” Keith told the Green Bay Press-Gazette about his popularity in the area in a 2003 interview. “I think it must be kind of like living in Oklahoma, where I’m from.”
Keith spoke his mind in interviews and in the songs he wrote, and it sometimes caused him controversy, including the release of "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" and his feud with The Chicks.
Favre, who was Green Bay Packers quarterback at the time, was spotted in the Resch crowd during one of Keith’s 2006 shows. Keith would sometimes put on a No. 4 Packers jersey during his concerts. In an interview with the Press-Gazette in 2017, ahead of his last Resch Center visit, Keith said of Favre: “It seems like every show I’ve done in Green Bay, he’s been there.”
"RIP to my friend Toby," Favre wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. "Love you and will miss you brother!!"
In 2005, after playing the first of two sold-out concerts with Nugent on the Big Throwdown Tour at the Resch Center, Keith showed up at a Main Street bar for the birthday party for the wife of one of Nugent’s guitar techs. He played pool in the corner and obliged whoever asked for a photo or autograph.
In 1997, he performed the national anthem in 3-degree weather at Lambeau Field for the NFC championship game against the Carolina Panthers.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 orkmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X@KendraMeinert.