Playboy: Can the latest reports be true? Toby Keith is a registered Democrat?

Keith: Yep. I'm looked on as being this outrageous right-wing nut, but I'm a very conservative Democrat. My dad, who I wrote "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" about, was a dyed-in-the- wool Democrat. And one of the last things my granddad said before he died was "Go cast my Democratic vote."

Playboy: Do you usually vote that way?

Keith: Yeah. The governor of Oklahoma's a Democrat. He's one of my best friends, and I did everything I could to get him elected. The governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is a real good friend of mine. I've had some correspondence with Zell Miller.

Playboy: Miller is the Democratic senator who gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Republican convention--not exactly most people's idea of a true Democrat.

Keith: People say, "You're one of those Zell Miller kind of guys," and I go, "Yeah." They asked me to come to the Republican convention too, but I think all those celebrities who showed up at Kerry's gig did so much damage to him that the last thing President Bush needed was people like me flyin' in there.

Playboy: But you did support the president.

Keith: I've never thought Bush is as right-wing and extreme as people believe. He's a family man, a Christian guy. The Republican Party as a whole has a lot of terrible things I don't agree with, so I could be either a somewhat lefty Republican or a righty Democrat. I feel I'm in the middle. And I think the majority of people feel the way I do. Maybe they're the people who don't vote, but I think they're in the middle. They don't necessarily support the Iraq war, but they support the troops and feel we should defend ourselves if we're attacked.

Playboy: And that's how you feel?

Keith: I'm pro-troops. And after a war starts, I think you have to support the troops. Now, I do think we need to find something in the middle and defend our country without running off and bombing a bunch of people for no reason. But you can't stick your head in the sand and let your only means of defense be denial. We weren't invading Iraq or anywhere else when they blew up the World Trade Center, so that had nothing to do with why they blew it up. They did it because they hate us. And the people behind all that terror stuff, they want Michael Moore dead, too, you know what I mean? They want our soldiers dead, and they want the guys who are pro-peace dead. There's no difference to them.

Playboy: Did you support invading Iraq?

Keith: I'm pro-war on terror. Whether we should go from country to country, like with the Iraq thing, I don't know. I'm not smart enough to say we should go to war every time somebody says we should, but I'm not smart enough to say we shouldn't be in there, either. Just because I don't think we should be at war, or just because I don't think the math adds up on a certain war, doesn't mean we shouldn't go.

Playboy: Sounds like you're hedging your bet. Does the math add up with Iraq?

Keith: I don't know. This ain't as simple as Afghanistan. We're going to Iraq for what? For terrorism? Have we seen any terrorist training camps? I haven't seen the smoking gun. And they haven't found the weapons of mass destruction. But the second I said in the press that I wasn't sure about Iraq, people said, "He's trying to save his career." What? My career is boomin', buddy.

Playboy: This past spring and summer you went on a USO tour to European bases and to Afghanistan and Iraq. Were you surprised by what you found?

Keith: You think when you go there that bombs will be going off everywhere, you know? And it's nothing like that. There were people in Baghdad shopping, going to the market. It was bustling. And we've got 20,000 troops walking around on the streets every day, helping civilians. Not that everybody wants us there, but a lot of people do, and a lot of people are glad Saddam's gone.

Playboy: Did it change your feeling about the war?

Keith: It didn't change the way I feel about it, but it did change some things. I learned a lot over there. I think people have to be cautious about how they get their news. I'd always trusted CNN to be my source and never really thought about it. But now, to me, CNN gives a very liberal, slanted view of the news. I don't feel that Fox always gets it right, but I think it at least makes an attempt to give me a balanced show.

Playboy: Isn't it more accurate to say that Fox is also biased but in a direction you happen to agree with?

Keith: All I know is that I talked to 15 or 20 generals while I was there. I talked to the commanding officers and the troops, and they all feel in their heart they're doing the right thing. Who am I to say otherwise? The one thing the soldiers kept telling me was, "Be careful where you get your news, man. They lie, lie, lie." So I came back and started watching Fox, and it was more like what I saw over there, a more accurate report of what the soldiers felt was going on.

Playboy: The song that gave you a reputation as a right-wing nut, as you put it, was "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." You've said you initially resisted releasing that song. Why?

Keith: I knew the people it was written for--the military--would love and appreciate it. But you can't draw the line. You can't say, "I'm never gonna play this anywhere except when there's only military in the room." And the second you play it for liberals, they're gonna be disappointed or outraged or whatever. I didn't want to have to deal with that.

Playboy: Why did you change your mind?

Keith: I played it about three times in six months. See, this is the part of the story nobody even knows about. I wrote that song in September, right after 9/11. I wrote it, sat on it and then played it at Annapolis. It was the biggest song of the night 10 times over. Then about two months later I went to the Pentagon and played a show. And right in the middle of it I gave them a little speech.I said, "This is my version of a patriotic song. I'm the son of a veteran, who was raised to appreciate the flag and all who died for it, and I just want to give this as a gift to you guys." I played it, and again people were crying; people were throwing their fists in the air. And then a four-star general came out and said, "We need that song. Are you going to be putting that song out?" I said, "No, sir," and he said, "Well, I highly recommend that you do. We've got the best equipment and the best fighting men, but we travel on our morale, and that song needs to be heard by everybody who's going into combat." So at the 11th hour we cut it and released it, and seven weeks later it was number one. And then here come those people I didn't want to have to deal with.