Krystal Keith has waited 26 out of her 29 years for this very moment - ever since the time at age 3 she froze trying to sing on stage with her dad, country superstar Toby Keith. She is now a confident singer-songwriter with a just-completed major tour, national TV appearances, a second album in the works and her sights squarely set on touring again in 2015.
Her evolution into a complete performer includes battling with her dad and mom about going to college ... and losing the battle, that ill-fated stage performance at age three, a love of Patsy Cline, a fascination with a 1958 hit, the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and getting the life experiences necessary to write meaningful songs.
Krystal wrapped up her North American tour on Sept. 27. She had the opening slot on the "Shut Up And Hold On" Tour, presented by Ford F-Series. Her job was to warm up the crowd for her headlining country star dad and fellow country performer Colt Ford. That was her job. Her goal was to sing her songs and have the audiences in every city walk out fans of two Keiths.
"You can't have a better mentor," Krystal declares of her mega-star father. "As a songwriter, as a vocalist - and he's also my dad, so I get the best of all worlds wrapped up in one person."
She made her national television debut in prime time as a teenager singing "Mockingbird" with her father on a 2004 awards show. And she recently made her Grand Ole Opry debut. She's also been featured on numerous national television programs, including "The Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
Krystal's debut album "Whiskey & Lace" received widespread recognition. Krystal co-wrote three of the album's 10 songs, including the title track. Toby co-produced the album and wrote or co-wrote four of its songs. The first release from the album "Daddy Dance with Me" - the song she wrote as a gift to her dad - became a viral smash.
Krystal interrupted packing for a trip to L.A. to do an exclusive interview with HNGN. Amid the clothes strewn all over her bedroom, she was open, candid and witty.
Of the "Shut Up And Hold On" Tour, she explained, "It was a really cool tour for me, because it was kind of a homecoming. I grew on that stage in front of those fans of my dad. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't apprehensive or self-conscious. I had literally seen many of those fans for the last 20 years. They watched me sing on his stages since I was 14. The tour really just made my passion for performing even stronger."
When asked what she learned on the tour that she can take on to her next tour, she was quick to answer.
"When I move on to another tour, I hope that I can take that being in the moment on stage with me on the new tour. That moment of not worrying about 'do they like the music' or 'are they enjoying the show,' because I feel confident that they do. I am secure in performing. That's what I can take to a new tour.
"My goal every show is to draw people in that aren't fans and lock them in to being fans. I want them to leave the show being a fan of mine. And I would like them to tell one other person that they had a blast and that I put on a great show.
"I know that some people come in to see my dad's show and they don't know who the opening acts are, let alone that I'm his daughter. Some people don't even register that we have the same last name. I've had people come up to me after the show and say, 'Oh, my God, I didn't even know he had a daughter.'
"And, of course, I know some people will think I am the opening act only because I'm his daughter. I know that I have fans who are there, but for those who don't know who I am or think I am there simply because of my dad, my goal is to play my music, do the show and turn them into fans in the process.
"My dad has made me pave my own path. He didn't just walk me into a top label and tell them he'd pay to put out my music. I have been performing for a long time. I was doing bar gigs up until my album came out. I think the work ethic I have and the fact that we took so much time to put my album together, speaks for itself.
"I don't think whether or not I'm successful has anything to do with me being Toby Keith's daughter. No country radio station is going to play me because of that. They're going to play me because the song is good, the music is good."
After high school, Krystal told her dad - insisted, really - that she was ready to bypass college and jump into the country music scene. Her dad and mom delivered an enthusiastic "Whoa!"
"We fought about me going to college quite a bit," she confesses. "We have a great relationship, but that's the one thing in my entire life that we've really gone head to head on. We battled. But now, looking back, I thank God that I have parents who were so much smarter than I was.
"My parents certainly knew what they were doing when they forced me to go to college. I appreciate them now, but, at the time, I was really upset about it.
"And, also, when my mom and dad graduated high school, neither one of them could afford to go to college, so they went into the working world. My dad's view was that he had worked so hard to give me opportunities that he didn't have and he wasn't going to let me squander the chance to go to college in order to do music. He would say that he ended up getting a really great opportunity in music 12 years after he graduated high school, and that doesn't happen for everybody, so you need to have a college degree to fall back on."
Krystal remembers countering his argument.
"My position at that time was that I didn't want to have a fall back plan because if I have a fall back plan then that just leaves room for me to fall back. So, I really tried to negotiate out of college. But both my parents took the tact that music can wait. They said, 'You can sing really well now, that's great, but you'll also be able to sing in four years when you're done in college."
Her dad also told her if she started her country music career just out of high school, her young age would be a detriment to her in a really essential aspect of country music.
"My dad, being a songwriter, said that I didn't have enough life experience to pursue a career in music and write the kinds of songs that connect with people. I had already been writing songs and he told me I was a really good writer, but that I needed to gain the life experiences to pour into my songs."
So, off to college she went.
"My degree is in organizational business communication, which is communication within a business or organization," she explains. "It is about how to manage a company effectively. I took marketing classes. I took business classes.
"I'm also lucky to have parents who are very entrepreneurial. We have businesses in so many different fields and industries.
"When I was 16, me and my best friend and her mom and my mom, we all opened a store together. My sister was also involved. It was a furniture and accessory store. We went to market and shopped for the store. So, we got to run a store while we were in high school. That was a good opportunity for me to learn how run a business.
"College just took that on-the-job knowledge about running a store that I already had and showed me how to manage a company and a big organization."
Even if she did not have a lot of the life experiences at 18 that her dad said she needed to write great songs, she did have some life experiences. There was, after all, that time she wanted - no, demanded - to be on stage with her dad when she was three. It was at a Fourth of July barbecue in Moore, Okla., where Toby was up on stage doing his show.
"My dad and I sang so many times around the house. And he was up on stage and it looked to me that he was having a good time - so I could not understand, for the life of me, why I couldn't get up there," recalls Krystal. "My mom told me 'no' and it didn't make sense to me why she wouldn't let me do it. I was screaming to let me get up on stage with him."
Krystal has photographic proof of her tantrum ... and the aftermath.
"I have a picture of me in a pink swim suit and I am literally throwing a holy terror fit. And just recently I came across a photo of when I actually did get up on stage."
Yes, Krystal got her wish to be onstage with her dad. What she didn't realize - at first - is that all the people in the audience would be watching him and, now, her.
"My dad saw me wanting to get up there, so he and my mom decided to let me to do it. When I got up by him, he turned to me and said, 'Ok, let's do 'You Are My Sunshine' - which was the only song I actually knew at the time. He picked me up and turned me around to the microphone. That's when I realized all those people out there were watching and my little mind, said, 'No. This is not like the singing I wanted to do.' I didn't get one word of the song out. He put me back down and I went back to my mom."
Krystal says that day had a profound positive impact on her.
"You know, nowadays - since I never get stage fright and I never get nervous - I always say that I got all of my stage fright out at three years old. And it's true. I have never had one bit of stage fright after that experience."
Her love of Patsy Cline would seem like a given, knowing who her dad is and what he does for a living, but how did Krystal become fascinated with the Big Bopper's hit "Chantilly Lace?"
"I was ten years old when my dad had his first hit with 'Should've Been A Cowboy.' We started looking for our first house. The house we bought had a dance room upstairs because the kids who live there before us were big into ballet. The room had mirrored wall and wood floor. We put our turntable in that room.
"One day me and my friends were up there listening to songs when I found the record of 'Chantilly Lace.' And it was such a fun song to dance to. I was in dance and it was a lot like the songs we did in dance, so far as the tempo, the catchy tune and the beat behind it. So I loved it. I listened to it probably ten times a day. I'd listen to it over and over and over again. I had no idea what it was about at that age, but I loved that song. It's one of those songs that has a special place in my heart."
She admits she continues to have a connection to the song.
"Still, to this day, if it comes on the radio, I'll shut everybody down around me. I'll tell them not to talk to me - and I'll start doing my dance that I did when I was 10. My husband has seen that dance more times than he probably would care to. He'll sing along, but he doesn't have my dance down."
She was asked to describe the dance.
(laughing) "My dance has a little bit of the twist in it. My grandpa would do the twist with a little leg lift, so that's in my dance. It's not the best dance in the world, but I was ten and I was working with what I could work with."
Unlike her photos of the Fourth of July barbecue, Krystal didn't offer up photographic proof of her twisty "Chantilly Lace" dance moves.
The songs of Patsy Cline also struck a responsive chord with young Krystal.
"She is my all-time favorite," she declares." Growing up, I would say my favorite would be 'Walkin' After Midnight,' because my grandmother and I would listen to it. It was probably the first Pasty Cline song I ever knew. As I got older and started singing her songs live, 'Crazy' quickly became my favorite."
Krystal's love of music and songwriting carried over into "Whiskey & Lace," her debut album. She used those life experience she had gained during and after college when she co-wrote three of the songs on the album.
"It was a blast doing the album. I took my time. It took three years to do the album, to get all the songs together, to get them recorded and to get the album ready to go.
"I wanted it to be my perfect debut album. I wanted it to portray my personality and the type of country fan I am, being that I love all the musical phases country has gone through: the blues, the rock, a little bit of old school country, a little bit of new school country. I wanted to show that all those musical phases have been really big influences on who I am as artist.
"We released 'Daddy Dance with Me' first and it was a viral hit. Then we put out 'Get Your Redneck On' and then earlier this year we released 'Down into Muddy Water' on satellite radio."
Now, with the first album and tour behind her, Krystal is moving on to another album and she wants to sign on to another tour.
"I have been in the studio with Nathan Chapman working on my second album. So, hopefully, the next single you hear from me will be off that album. I am going to take my time because I want it to be my perfect second album, but it won't be three years in the making. I'm pretty sure it would be out next year."
Krystal wants to be out on the road again next year.
"Being on another big tour is what I would like to happen next. I love to perform for people. I do it for the love it. I do it for the craft of it.
"There are so many amazingly fun tours by amazing artists out there now. Lady A would be an incredible tour to be on. Brantley Gilbert would be a great tour to be on. There are so many great performers touring today that I could go on and on with the list. I do a lot of the soulful rock bluesy country stuff, so a Southern rock tour would also be really good."
No doubt the next time Krystal Keith is out on tour, there will hundreds of photos taken of her during her truly comfortable-in-her-own-skin performances. Those photos of a talented and beautiful young woman will provide a stark contrast to that photo of a feisty three-year-old in a pink swim suit. She has come a long way, and a wide-open, big time country music career is ahead of her.
