Toby Keith and wife Tricia Lucus met years before the “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” singer was even a singer. And while everyone around Tricia told her to tell her man to get a real job, she believed in his talent in music and supported him through his ambitious career. His hard work paid off and now he is one of the most successful country music artists. The couple now celebrates 37 years of marriage, and they’re in it for life.
So, let’s go back to 1981 in an Oklahoma nightclub where they first met and reminisce about their love story.
First Chapter: Love at First Couple Dance
When Toby Keith and Tricia Lucus vowed ‘for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part,’ they really meant every word that they said.
Keith was 20 at the time, and Tricia was 19, working as an oil company secretary when they first met in an Oklahoma nightclub. It was 1981, and when Tricia recalled that first time, she said that Keith was that ‘larger-than-life’ guy who was just so full of confidence. The two danced that night, and Keith thought that she was great.
Although they were very young at the time, enjoying and exploring life, Keith knew that he wanted to spend his lifetime with her. It was definitely love at first sight. The couple dated for three years before they finally tied the knot on March 24, 1984. And right after they wed, Keith adopted Tricia’s daughter, Shelley, who was born a year before the two met. Shortly after, they also welcomed their two kids – Krystal and Stelen.
Second Chapter: From the Ground Up
Keith worked in the oil fields with his father to provide for his family. But the pay was not enough, especially for a family of five. He was barely making $50,000 annually. So, when the oil industry winded up downhill, he turned to music to make money.
Keith had always loved music even as a child. At eight, he had his first guitar and started playing different instruments. When he graduated from high school, he played with the Easy Money Band. The band’s first gig paid well at $1,000, and Keith thought it was ‘easy money,’ thus the name of the band, but later on, he discovered that music wasn’t always that easy. He and his friends would play in bars for $35 and free beer – far off from their first four-figure payment. They toured Oklahoma and Texas, but he was still employed in the oil fields at the time, so he had to leave even in the middle of a concert if he was needed at work.
For You
By the early ‘90s, he went to Nashville and started busking on Music Row. He told his wife to just hang in there, believing that his time was coming, but he had no luck. A lot of people around Tricia told her to tell her man to get an actual job, but she never wavered in support of her husband’s ambitious career.
She told them that he was good enough at music and she had to let him try. And she was right. He was good enough that he earned a record deal with Mercury Records. And in 1993, he released his debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” which also hit number one on the charts and became the most played song of the 1990s and undeniably became one of the most popular Toby Keith songs ever.
And as of 2021, the Oklahoma native boasts an estimated net worth of $365 million!
Who is Toby Keith’s wife, Tricia Lucus?
Tricia Lucus, now known as Toby Keith’s spouse Tricia Covel preferred to stay out of the limelight. There is hardly any detail about her family and early life except that she was born in 1962 in the US. She had a daughter named Shelley in 1980 before she met her now-husband. The two adopted her right after they wed in 1984.
Tricia has an estimated net worth of $10 million earned from managing a number of businesses with her husband like the liquor distillery known as ‘Wild Shot’ in 2011, a label record ‘Show Dog Records,’ and a string of ‘Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill.’
Third Chapter: Meet Toby Keith’s Children
The couple’s eldest daughter is Shelley Covel Rowland, who is a mother of two, according to Country Fancast. And then, a year after the two wed, they welcomed their second daughter Krystal Ladawn Covel on September 30, 1985. And after a long wait, they welcomed their third child and only son Stelen Keith Covel on October 23, 1997.
Krystal and Stelen are known to have followed their father’s musical footsteps. Krystal is known professionally as Krystal Keith, and like her father, she shared a love for performing. In 2004, she shared a stage with him covering “Mockingbird” by Inez and Charlie Foxx. And after graduating college, she signed with her father’s label and debuted her first single, “Daddy Dance With Me,” in 2013. On the other hand, Stelen loved to work behind the scenes, and he co-founded a concert booking company with Zeke Benoit, grandson of Howard Pollack.
Toby Keith and wife Tricia Lucus are now having the time of their lives with their children and grandchildren from Shelley and Krystal.
