Toby Keith won’t be touring in 2022. The singer has cleared his concert calendar to take time off this year. This news comes one day after the 60-year-old revealed his stomach cancer diagnosis to fans.
A note from Keith’s team to Taste of Country confirms the cancelations and ends any speculation about if he’d be keeping any touring commitments in 2022. There had been more than a dozen dates on the country staple’s calendar through early November, but his official website now has no shows listed.
On Sunday night (June 10), the Associated Press reported that some tour dates would be canceled, and as businesses opened on Monday, cancelations in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio made the news.
“I need time to breathe, recover and relax,” Keith writes on social media.
Keith’s cancer diagnosis came last fall, and since then he’s undergone surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. His message to fans offers no details about the effectiveness of treatment or his prognosis, but it did come with some words of optimism.
“So far, so good,” he writes, before closing with, “But I will see the fans sooner than later. I can’t wait.”
Per the Cleveland Clinic, cure rates for stomach cancer vary depending on how early the cancer is detected. Someone with Stage 0 stomach cancer may only require surgery and close monitoring, while someone fighting Stage 4 stomach cancer may learn it has spread to other organs. WebMD has a list of signs and symptoms of stomach cancer, as well as a proper description of treatments.
Per John Hopkins Medicine, the cause of stomach cancer is not known, but there are some associated factors, including diets that are high in smoked or salted foods and low in vegetables, as well as alcohol consumption and smoking. Men over 65 are more susceptible than other portions of the population.
A few weeks before Sunday’s news, Keith’s annual Toby Keith and Friends Golf Classic raised over $1.38 million for the Toby Keith Foundation. Those funds are earmarked for the OK Kids Korral, a free home for children who are battling pediatric cancer at OU Medical Center at the University of Oklahoma.
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