Fan Story: Toby Keith Helps Honor Fan’s Lost Family Member
Ryan has been kind enough to blog for us before about his fun adventures at different shows, mainly concerts by one of his favorite artists, Toby Keith. Once again, Ryan has shared his Toby experience with us, but this time, it’s a very moving story. Read below to hear about Ryan’s truly special time at Toby’s recent show…
I bought my tickets to the Hartford, Connecticut stop of the Toby Keith “American Ride Tour” a few months ago. I was real excited since I got 10th row floor. However, life changed a bit for me two weeks ago as my brother-in-law was tragically killed. Obviously, going to a concert was the last thing on my mind. However, when a close friend said she got me a meet & greet to the show and informed Toby’s crew about what happened, my family urged me to go. I brought along a replica of his LA Dodgers’ team jersey (he played summer minor league ball for them) as I wanted to honor him somehow, also knowing the Dodgers were Toby’s favorite team. When I got to meet Toby backstage, his staff seemed to whisper something to him before I approached him. He then asked me what happened and we had a long conversation about the death of my loved one. Not only was he really sincere about the whole thing, but we held up the jersey in the picture together.
I also told him the song “Cryin’ For Me” has helped me through the whole process and thanked him for writing that song. Later on, during his show and while he performed “Cryin’ For Me” he walked over to my section, pointed at me and I raised my brother-in-law’s jersey in the air. He continued to point at me for a few seconds, pounded his chest, and pointed to the sky. I am deeply indebted to Toby for honoring him in the way he did that night and will never forget it.
