Songfacts®:

• Toby Keith was very much a man of the people; the people who hang out in bars, anyway. In "I Love This Bar" he sings about the kind of place where all types come together to congregate over their adult beverage of choice. You get the sense that it's a bit like The Oasis in Garth Brooks' "Friends In Low Places" - you'll be fine as long as you don't act like a jerk.
  
  Keith didn't name a specific inspiration for this bar, which gave it more universal appeal: Whatever bar you're in when the song comes on, that's the one. And there's a good chance you will hear it in bars where Toby Keith fans hang out.
• In the music video a yuppie gets hazed, but that's because he was being rude, committing the barroom foul of talking loudly on his cell phone. Listen to the lyrics and you'll hear that this bar is filled not only with truckers, rednecks and cowboys, but also early-birds and, yes, yuppies.
  
  Toby Keith, who died in 2024, could be an intimidating fellow but he gave everyone a chance, no matter their beliefs or origin story.
• Keith wrote this song with Scotty Emerick, his main collaborator at this time. The song was released as the first single from his 2003 album Shock'n Y'all, and as expected, it went to #1 on the Country chart (it also crossed over to the Hot 100 at #26). Keith was enjoying a run of hits, including the Country #1s "Beer For My Horses," "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight" and "As Good As I Once Was," all written with Emerick.
• The music video was shot at The Cowboy Palace Saloon in Chatsworth, California, a beloved honky-tonk. In the video, Keith sings the song with his band behind a mesh of chicken wire to protect him from the flying beer bottles. The video plays up the trope of the cowboy bar where there's always a fight breaking out, with the chicken wire a nod to the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. We also see a guy getting romantic with a beautiful woman he later sees in the men's room.
• Looking for more songs about bars? Here ya go:
  
  "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar" by George Strait
  "American Honky-Tonk Bar Association" by Garth Brooks
  "A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega" by Ashley McBryde
  "Down to the Honkytonk" by Jake Owen
  "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" by Shaboozey
• This song did so well that Toby Keith expanded the concept with a chain of restaurants called the I Love This Bar And Grill. The first one opened in Oklahoma City in 2005, and by 2015 there were about 20 locations. Thereafter, they started closing, but the original stayed open even after Keith's death in 2024.
  
  Keith was an investor but wasn't involved in the day-to-day operations of the franchise.
• In 2006 the singer-songwriter Michael McCloud sued Keith, claiming "I Love This Bar" too closely resembled McCloud's song "Tourist Town Bar." Keith was incensed and fought the lawsuit as hard as he could. In 2007, McCloud's case was dismissed and Keith aired his frustrations, issuing a statement that read, "I don't have a problem taking heat for my politics or my music. You can like my songs or not, but they mean everything to me. I have always said that I may not always be a performer, but I will always be a songwriter. So when this lawsuit was filed, it pissed me off. And no matter what it took, I was going to fight it. It was just too wrong."