More than a week later and folks on Twitter are still coming after Taylor Swift regarding her silence over Toby Keith.
Of course, there’s no way to know the situation there with Swift. Maybe she hasn’t had time to process the loss with all that has been going on in her world. Maybe she is mourning behind the scenes. Maybe she and Keith had some sort of falling out where she doesn’t feel inclined to be overly emotional.
There could be many reasons why she hasn’t said much — or anything at all — since the singer’s recent death at 62-year-old following a battle with stomach cancer. Google it, and you will even see headlines calling their relationship “mysterious.”
Still, what seems settled is that Keith had a hand in helping Swift’s career get off the ground, and she has praised him in the past, so mix the silence with the growing contempt from the MAGA crowd which seems to be obsessed with her and her political leanings, and things still are not going well for her on social media.
Doesn’t take long scrolling through Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, for the vile posts to start popping up.
One of the first refers to her as a “little (expletive)” and a “Self absorbed POS” for not yet issuing a statement regarding Keith. The next post down the timeline calls her an “ignorant diva” and “overrated teeny-bopper” while mentioning the silence around Keith.
There’s a story about country music singer and right-wing personality John Rich speaking out about her for not saying anything about Keith, and a story about comedian Alex Stein coming at her for it, too.
None of it is really surprising. Again, Swift, with her visibility and massive following, has many of the politically charged folks on edge.
According to multiple reports, Keith had at least a little bit of a hand in helping her career take off. Keith was reportedly a “major stakeholder” in Swift’s former label — Big Machine Records — and reportedly helped push her early on.
She praised him, too, in an interview years ago prior to her debut album in an interview with Nashville’s WSMV.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get to a point where I won’t see him and be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Toby Keith!’” she told the station then.
She also praised him in 2015 when he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Swift will be in front of microphones soon enough, and she will surely be asked about Keith and his passing.
It will be interesting to see how folks respond.
