Looking Back on Toby Keith’s Oft-Forgotten Wild Shot Mezcal
Toby Keith in concert at the Idaho Center, 2007. (Photo: Cal Sport Media/AP Images)
On Monday, country fans mourned the sudden loss of genre legend Toby Keith at the age of 62. Following a two-year battle with stomach cancer, the beloved Oklahoma native leaves a legacy filled with crowd anthems and surprising factoids revealing a life beyond the spotlight.
Behind chart-toppers like “Red Solo Cup” and “Beer For My Horses” lays a business empire so vast that Forbes once described Keith as the cowboy capitalist.
Over the years, Keith ventured into a chain of restaurants named after his hit 2003 song “I Love This Bar,” secured 850 wins for thoroughbred horses raised on his Dream Walkin ranch and forayed into THC products through Big Dog Cannabis Co. Others knew him best for starring in a series of Ford advertisements.
One of his lesser-known businesses — or at the very least, less promoted — was Wild Shot Mezcal.
(Photos: Wild Shot)
Launched in 2011, Wild Shot came to market with an unaged Blanco and 6-month Reposado bottled at 86.8-proof. Its slogan, “Blame It on the Worm,” paid homage to the infamous maguey worm lurking at the bottom of each bottle.
“I have always been fascinated with Mexico and the drink Mezcal,” said Keith. “It is a part of my life. Mexico is a theme that runs through many of my songs. … The tradition and history of mezcal is magical to me and dates back to 16th-century warriors celebrating the defeat of their enemies.”
Though celebrity-backed mezcal may not seem out of the ordinary in 2024, Keith was a true pioneer in the category. Wild Shot debuted a full two years before George Clooney’s Casamigos, the spirit that single-handedly catapulted the celebrity tequila craze as we know it today.
Celebrities’ fascination with tequila quickly gave way to an interest in mezcal. These days, you’ll find stars like Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Cheech Marin and LeBron James happily chugging along to mezcal’s surgent popularity with flashy brands of their own. Believe it or not, Keith was the very first.
Wild Shot is unique in other ways. While the vast majority of commercially available mezcal is distilled from Agave Espadin grown in Oaxaca, Wild Shot is distilled from Agave Salmiania — known as the “green giant” due to its 8-10 foot height and 25-year maturation period — in San Luis Potosi. Salmiana is noticeably less smoky and more herbaceous than typical mezcal offerings and is a heck of a lot more difficult to cultivate.
Sadly for die-hard fans, Wild Shot has more or less vanished from the market. Its website — wildshot.com — redirects to an error page, and the brand hasn’t done anything by way of promotion in years. You can find bottles reselling on various spirits websites, but prices range from $30 to upwards of $200.
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