Tampa residents remember country music star Toby Keith after his death at 62

TAMPA, Fla. - All it took was one post by Toby Keith's team for the memories to come rushing back for former Tampa Bay radio DJ Skip Mahaffey.

Mahaffey helped bring Keith to the Strawberry Fest in 2002.

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"I was sitting backstage during that performance," he said. "The place just went absolutely crazy because this was less than a year after the 9/11 attacks."

It was one of their many encounters as he saw Keith rise from a guy doing bar gigs in Columbus, Ohio in 1994 to superstar who sold more than 30 million albums, and hit number one twenty times.

"To be there in that very intimate moment between an artist and that audience was was absolutely incredible," shared Mahaffey.

In June of 2022, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and treated by chemo, radiation and surgery.

"I think about what he went through the past years," said Mahaffey. "Cancer is ugly. Cancer is brutal. It doesn't care how many awards that you won or the philanthropy that you do for others."

Dr. Sharona Ross hopes Keith's high-profile case brings more focus on stomach cancer, which is highly treatable if caught early.

The five-year survival rate is 75 percent, but only 35 percent if it spreads to nearby lymph nodes. The tricky thing is the symptoms can be as vague as vomiting and acid reflux.

"What we need is awareness, surveillance, more education, to the public, physicians," said Ross. "If it's not identified early on, you know that the chance of surviving is very low."

The fact that he was lost at just 62 is crushing for Skip Mahaffey, who saw him after a recent awards show, and the full scope of the superstar came into focus.

"He was crying, and he said, 'I just can't believe this is finally happening.' To see a guy who is that strong, willing to just to break down and be real. That to me is, that's the thing that I remember most about that night."