When Toby Keith released his album Pull My Chain – his sixth studio work – on this day in 2001, he got the opportunity to do precisely what he wanted – talk about himself.
Pull My Chain was Keith’s first album to debut atop the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It was home to three consecutive No. 1 songs: “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight,” his first crossover country/rap novelty hit “I Wanna Talk About Me,” and his ballad “My List.”
AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: “This is a bigger, better record than its predecessor, possessing a richer musicality and a more confident sense of humor.”
By that point, Keith had already had hit songs “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “Who’s That Man,” and “Wish I Didn’t Know.”
Pull My Chain was built on the swagger and attitude from 1999’s How Do You Like Me Now?! But it normalized that attitude and twisted it into a polished, yet edgy, radio-ready package. Keith won the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year trophy on the back of the album. With its spoken-word delivery, “I Wanna Talk About Me” normalized hip-hop cadences inside country music. The song helped pave the way for bro-country, which later embraced swaggering verses and chanting choruses.
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Was Toby Keith the Precursor to Bro-Country?
Bobby Braddock, who wrote “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” also wrote “I Wanna Talk About Me.” He wanted Blake Shelton to record it for his debut album. When the song’s audience testing returned poor results, Shelton’s record label excluded it from the Braddock-produced project.
Braddock remembered Keith had spoken-word verses on his 1998 single “Getcha Some,” and decided to pitch it to him.
“The first person they played it for was Toby,” Shelton told Jimmy Fallon. “I like to think it was meant for Toby. He was just the one guy that could say (the lyrics) and we would all laugh about it.”
Keith told Billboard magazine that he knew he would get “banged a little” for recording the song.
“They’re going to call it a rap,” he said. “Although there ain’t nobody doing rap who would call it a rap.”
Songs including “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight” incorporated barroom pick-ups and casual hookups that became a staple in bro-country’s lyrics. At the time, critics noted that on much of the album, Keith used more humor and cockiness than family-man ballads. However, he still checked that box with his Tim James and Rand Bishop-penned chart topper “My List.”
Toby Keith: Not Empty Testosterone
For the most part, the album was unapologetically male and celebrated being ordinary, which also became hallmarks of bro-country.
But the album wasn’t empty testosterone.
Keith couldn’t have known it at the time, but the attitude and timing of the album set him up for the rest of his career. About two weeks after he released Pull My Chain, hijackers flew airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.
Having arrived on the doorstep of 9/11, Pull My Chain led Keith to become one of the country and country music’s most visible patriotic voices. The momentum from Pull My Chain, his longstanding dedication to the U.S. military, and the country’s unrest following the terrorist attack set the stage for his next album. Unleashed was home to “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” which continued to define his career for decades.
The success cemented Keith as one of the biggest radio and sales draws of the 2000s.
Critics embraced its well-balanced blend of traditional storytelling and modern production, which helped Keith rise to superstar status. Fans embraced the album’s mix of humor, heart, and edge, making it one of his most defining projects.
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for BMI)
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