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Show University Journal Page A8 Monday, September 9, 2002 and has three children. But a master at what he calls attitude songs, numbers diat tread the line between rascally and mean. Meanest by far is Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue, which unabashedly glorifies die bombing of Afghanistan. The song traffics in vivid, simple shades of black and white, good and evil. didnt just sell Courtesy well, it also produced the sort of controversy performers dream about. Keith was to appear on a July 4 TV special, but the invitation was rescinded, according to Keith, because ABC, and news anchor Peter Jennings in particular, heard the songs lyrics. An ABC spokesman said diis week that Keith was dropped largely for logistical reasons namely, he demanded to open the show. Regardless, Keith had the perfect country music enemy: a brainy media guy who also happens to be Canadian. college at 22 and start over, or do I try something else? Music seemed like an option. Keith had started writing songs at 14, and during his oil years a quintet called Easy Money that built a local following in the caily 80s. Soon alter, Keith showed up in Nashville with a demo cassette. He landed an appointment with a Capitol Records executive, who sent a l A&R flunky to meet with Keith. The memory still seems to rankle. I le come out and he put the hes also i" Continued from Page A7 net worth at $25 million. But Keith is promoting Unleashed like lies never nibbled success. The day after the Manassas mob scene, hes at a Bethesda, Md., radio station, bright and early. Ol du OF SOUTHERN UTAH T Keith, 41, sells like a man possessed, in part because he has a phenomenal work ethic and in part because hes got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. There are naysayers in his wake, among them a Capitol Records executive who rebuffed him during his first trip to Nashville and a label that foolishly (Mercury) rejected his 1999 album, How Do You Like Me Now?! which became a massive hit. Keith was officially vindicated last year by the Academy of Country Music, which handed him the Male Vocalist of the Year prize. But hed like to prove his detractors wrong all over again. He and DreamWorks, his new label, bet Unleashed would be the No. 1 album in the nation within a week of its release. It was. The atmosphere of vengeance is one reason Keith seems perfectly in sync with the mood of die country, which has had vengeance on its mind lately, too. Pop country puts a high premium on manners and modesty, and Keith is perfecdy capable of bodi. He can also sing stirringly about family; lies been married for 18 years www.sbsu.com FREE CHECKING No Minimum Balnnca FREE VISADEBIT CARD ATM CARD FREE INTERNET BANKING ATM ON-CAMP- US EXTENDED HOURS AT OUR OFFICE WAL-MAR- T 1 0 a.m. 1 0 a.m.- - 4 p.m. Saturday - 7 p.rrs. Monday-Fridn- y TaU Continued from Page A7 five, six, seven or eight diousand guys that go to diat funeral. We go all over the country Wd't-v-y- IBtelRa3ia? , W&0&rE (SiSvViH 033! .'.9rRJ5)-s?M6eM- P SaiRifi ffiliDRi o si? rl!;(!flt o 5ff&0?lSs ( f t T for f ft Zs ft1 c a firefighter funeral, diats what firefighters do, Hall says. But on Sept 11, so many died that none of them got to have the big funeral diat diey knew theyd get if diey ever died. So I guess a lot of us want to keep paying tribute to diem in some way. There are nearly a dozen Sept. 1 1 tattoos among die members of Halls tiny, New England department. On his f six-son- g mid-leve- tape in and pressed fast forward, play, fast forward, play. He run through them real quick and he said, You know what, youre Web site, Hall also spotlights dozens of old tattoos that proclaim membership in the firefighting brotherhood, with tributes to firefighter-friendlshops across the states. In Cumberland, Md , a short drive from the Pennsylvania crash site of United Flight 93, firefighters are tattooed with superhero and comic book versions of themselves, says Mark Skiver, owner of Personal Art Tattoo. We've done Taz coming out of the flames carrying Sylvester. Weve done a raccoon head on the body of a A really buff firefighter firetruck coming out of flames. Firefighters have always loved says Skiver, whos done a few Sept. 11 requests, but not die number that other artists talk about. To be honest with you, we did more business for Dale Earnhardts deadi than we did after Sept. 1 1 out here. Tattooing is intense work for the artists, who are often hunched, bent or stretched to reach body parts they decorate. But at no time has the process been as emotionally exhausting as this past year. Most of diese guys have a story to tell, Dozer says And they relive it while Im doing their tattoos. So every day, we go back diere. Back to Ground Zero ... Theres crying. Lots of crying." find it interesting that Oennings) is not from the U S., he told USA Today. I bet Dan Rarherd let me do it. g high-payin- tattoos, fiYifitfirirtifjS Hff H " If . They're if - IYMT i- heading back. I x mithm- - 1 vm i) 0 SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY. Membership course basis. Amenities and services vary between clubs. Now that you are going back to school, get yourself into a healthy routine, join Gold's Gym now at this " imuuiM ' outlet ilili ait'. rf J SPECIAL OFFER! imu juuHiiA- - : db1 ujuujf '.iru 'uHn- - Yvrviu Km liM. 1 - : telt i . Vi j pretty Keiths route to music stardom was hardly direct. After high school, he went into the business. For four years, he worked on a casing crew, a strenuous but job, until the oil market collapsed in Oklahoma in 1983. Hundreds lost their jobs. I thought, What am I going to do now? he recalls. I messed Id thought up by taking the money instead of going to college. Now, do I go back to I 5 i $ a good singer and youve got the look, but we need to find you some songs. It really broke my heart because I was first and foremost a songwriter, so I left Nashville with no intention of ever coming back Luckily, Keith had also given a copy to a friend who knew Harold Shedd, then a producer whose credits included a dozen Alabama albums. I thought he was really good live, Shedd says They were doing a lot of originals that nobody in die crowd had ever heard and diey were getting a huge reaction. I thought, theres no reason not to like dns. As for that guy from Capitol, hes otherwise employed and lamenting the day he missed out on a fortune, says Keidi. He isn't in die music business anymore. I think hes cutting grass. ST'JjfL-o- : Ur; ' !W U',YI |