Once the dust settled in New York City after the Twin Towers came crashing down and the tears stopped for just a moment, we got mad.
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Just one week after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Toby Keith sat down a set of fiery words that would come together to form the patriotic anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”
This song needed no formal songwriting sessions or label meetings. Keith is said to have written the song in just 20 minutes. In a CBS interview in 2003, Keith explained how the song came to fruition after playing the song for a group at the Pentagon.
“He [the Marine Corp commandant] said, ‘You have to release it. You can serve your country in other ways besides suiting up in combat.’ We will go kick their butts. But we survive on morale,” says Keith. “I mean, we live on the morale. That’s what we travel on. And, he said I highly recommend you put that song out.”
He told American Songwriter at the time that his passion for songwriting came into focus as he was able to craft this tune so quickly.
“Looking back on that time period, I can see where I would write 50 songs and I’d get one good one,” he said. “Then maybe I’d write 40 songs and write a good one. Then it would only be 30 songs with a good one, and the gap just kept getting closer and closer and finally got to where anything you wrote was a pretty decent song. It took about six to eight years to get to that point.”
And to this day, 21 years later, this song proves that country boys can kick some ass.
And when you add Trace Adkins to that same song, forget about it.
That’s the power of country.
