Toby Keith took a moment to appear on Chelsea Handler’s show ‘Chelsea Lately’ Tuesday night (March 27) to talk to the comedic host about his career, enjoy a shot of tequila and explain why he’s not a conservative Republican, as many might assume. After admitting that she actually had Keith confused with Trace Adkins until she saw him and realized it wasn’t Adkins, Handler jumped in her matter-of-fact, straight-faced way from topic to topic — after first enjoying a shot of the restaurant owner’s own brand of Mezcal, which he calls Wild Shot.

Handler had to catch her breath after taking the smoky shot (she skipped out on the agave worm that comes in the bottle), but she didn’t lose any speed in grilling the Oklahoma native on his political stance. First pointing out that most country stars are conservative Republicans and Keith isn’t, she asked him to explain himself, which he did with ease.

“I come from a long line of southern democrats, and I do 180 shows for the USO troops,” Keith said, to which Handler asked, “Is that why people thought you were a Republican?”

“Yeah,” the singer asserted. “In the media today with instant news, it’s all a bunch of headlines, so as soon as you support your troops and you go do your USO shows – for 10 years running we’ve done 180 shows.” Though Keith doesn’t affiliate with any major party, he says he thinks that’s perhaps why people make assumptions.

“The headlines rope you into what you are, but I was never — I’m actually an independent now — I can’t stand politicians. I can’t stand ‘em.” But Keith is a huge fan of supporting the U.S. troops, and that’s not about to change.

“The USO is a wonderful, wonderful organization,” he urged to Handler. “For decades they’ve been bringing entertainment and stuff to the troops – care packages and things to take in while they’re in harm’s way and let ‘em know that we’re thinking about ‘em so I became a big part of that.”

Keith is currently up for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award as the only country star to land in the Favorite Male Singer category. Still, he says he’s going to skip out on the awards show itself and go out to dinner instead. While you may think he’s got a bad attitude about the whole thing, the ‘Red Solo Cup‘ singer has a legitimate reason: He’s up against teen sensation Justin Bieber.

“First of all, how does that happen?” he asked rhetorically. “And second of all, do I have a chance in hell of beating Justin Bieber on the Kids’ Choice Awards? I don’t think I’m going. I think I’m gonna go eat Mexican food.”

Watch Toby Keith on ‘Chelsea Lately’

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