During NBC’s Toby Keith: American Icon special, The Voice Coach Reba McEntire spoke fondly of her late friend and country star Toby Keith, who, like McEntire, was from Oklahoma. Here’s what she said.

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Toby Keith and Reba McEntire’s Oklahoma Pride

“Toby represented the best of Oklahoma. A lot of people dream of making it big so they can leave their hometown. Toby wanted to make his hometown bigger,” McEntire said during a pre-taped segment on the broadcast.

She continued, “And when he took it, he took the whole state with him.” Keith was born in 1961 in Clinton, Oklahoma; McEntire is from McAlester, Oklahoma.

After his death, Keith received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a donor and longtime football fan.

Reba McEntire praised Toby Keith’s “big heart”

The “Fancy” singer also praised Keith’s dual personality, revealing, “When I was with him, he was a tough country singer. But later I found out he had a really big heart. Like Oklahoma big.”

Off stage, Keith was a devoted family man, raising three children with his beloved wife Tricia. He was surrounded by family when he “passed away peacefully” and is survived by his wife, two daughters, son and grandchildren.

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The long friendship between McEntire and Keith

“We are going to miss him so much, not only as a friend, but as a fellow artist and person in the music industry and from Oklahoma,” McEntire said People after Keith passed away in early 2024 from stomach cancer. “I hope to see him in heaven someday. Thank God we have his beautiful music to keep us company even though he’s not here on earth with us.”

She also remembers their performances together in the mid-’90s, when they toured together: “That was a lot of fun… Toby was more the rebellious type, the outlaw type, and I’m the Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes type, so it was kind of two extremes of the spectrum.”

“He was a great writer, a great singer. When Toby came on the radio, you knew who he was,” McEntire added. “Toby Keith was a distinctive singer, a stylist, you knew exactly who he was. So that’s a great quality to have.”