Toby Keith's New Film: "It's Not All Wagon Wheels and Bales of Hay"

Toby Keith's upcoming movie, Beer For My Horses, is a classic good-guy-versus-bad-guy tale set in a dusty Oklahoma town, but don't expect a dialogue rife with "howdy!" and "yee-haw!"

"It's not all wagon wheels and bales of hay," says Keith, who penned the flick that draws its story line from his 2003 hit with Willie Nelson. (Willie snags a cameo in the film, which hits theatres on August 8th.) "We don't always have to look like Hee-Haw."

Instead, Keith — who stars as a small-time deputy on a quest to rescue his girlfriend (Claire Forlani) from drug-lord kidnappers — promises loads of ass-kicking action, Ted Nugent in a sleeveless snakeskin shirt (he plays a mute deputy) and even some cultural commentary. "The storyline is about methamphetamine use and how bad it is in the South," says Keith. "Meth-heads here steal liquid fertilizer that's kept in agricultural co-ops to make the drug. [In the movie], we stake out the co-ops for a bust, and the story is how that blows up in our faces."

Check back later this week for more on Beer For My Horses, plus an extended Q&A with Keith, where he riffs on gun-control, the Iraq war, gay marriage and PC ethnic jokes. Meanwhile, click above for a clip from the film.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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