Toby Keith on Same-Sex Marriage, Gays in Military

Country singer Toby Keith, who once blasted the Dixie Chicks for speaking out against President Bush, now says he doesn't understand why some people are bothered by same-sex marriage, though he worries about gays in the military, according to an interview with CMT Insider.

"That whole gay issue thing, that's never bothered me," he says. "I've never seen what that affects and [why] anybody should care -- and they never do affect me. ... First of all, we're going to stop somebody from getting a marriage license because they're gay? You won't stop them from living together, so what have you accomplished? ... Wasting a lot of money here and a lot of time that could be spent working on this deficit that we're under ... I never saw the reasoning behind getting in people's personal lives."

Keith expresses his concern about the safety of female soldiers both during combat and if captured, but says he doesn't personally care about someone's sexual orientation. "But the military is a tough thing. I don't worry as much about the heterosexual people fighting as I do ... about the gays. ... In the military or any class in life, you have people who have problems with it, and I'm wondering how that's going to be compatible on the battlefield. That's the only question I have, other than that I don't care."

But Keith tries not to generalize, saying, "As long as females and the gays and the soldiers are all killers and ready to fight people off ... get 'em!"