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Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” tells the story of American anger and resilience after 9/11, drawing on personal grief from his father’s recent death and his father’s military service (an Army veteran who lost an eye) to create a patriotic anthem. He wrote it intending to play it for soldiers, but after performing it for Marines, General James L. Jones encouraged him to release it as a single, despite its controversial, explicit lyrics about putting a “boot in your ass”. The song became a massive hit, capturing the national mood and solidifying Keith’s status as a patriotic icon.