As red Solo cups are filled in memory rather than merriment this week, the nation recalls the legacy of Toby Keith, the country music icon who passed away at 62 after battling stomach cancer. Michigan-based Dart Container Corp., the maker of the ubiquitous Red Solo Cup, expressed their condolences, highlighting the honor of their product being a symbol of good times in Keith's 2011 hit song. "We were honored that Toby chose the iconic Solo cup as a sign of good times, and we extend our sympathies to all those who are mourning him today," Dart said in a statement reported by Fortune.
The humble plastic vessel has taken on a poignant role as tributes pour in, sitting alongside Keith's guitar at Oklahoma basketball games and inspiring drink specials in bars across the country. Fans and friends alike have taken to social media and local haunts with their red Solo cups held high, toasting to a life well-lived. The Solo brand, now a staple of casual revelry nationwide, began in 1936 when Leo Hulseman started producing disposable paper cones, with the sturdy plastic cup version we now know coming into existence in the 1970s thanks to his son, Robert Hulseman, according to historical details from Fortune.
In honoring Keith's storied love for his home state, the Oklahoma Sooners' coach, Porter Moser, fittingly held a red Solo cup while offering a toast to the late singer during a postgame press conference. "We lost a dear friend in Toby Keith... And to all his friends around the country, in the music industry, in the sports world, friends and all different things, today we raise a glass to Toby Keith," Moser stated, with a sentiment that was echoed across Sooner Nation, as detailed by 247Sports.
In a gathering that mixed celebration and solemnity, the tributes were not confined to words. The Sooners' men's basketball team, victorious in their recent game, raised red Solo cups in their locker room, an homage that symbolized the intersection of athletic triumph and communal loss. Having declared Keith to be "everything you want to be about," Moser characterized the late singer as the embodiment of Sooner spirit, as reported by 247Sports. Dart Container Corp., reaffirming their pride in Keith's choice of their Solo cup as a beacon of joy, is likely finding solace in how their product has now become a vessel for homage, according to the MLive report on the Michigan connection to Keith's celebrated song.
"Red Solo Cup, you're more than just plastic. You're more than amazing, you're more than fantastic," sang countless fans, echoing the words from Keith's song, which he once dubbed "the stupidest song I ever heard in my life, but it's so stupid it's good," Keith himself once famously said in an interview with The Boot. The sentimentality connected to the red Solo cup and Keith's playful anthem serves as a reminder that the stuff of daily life – a plastic cup, a catchy tune – can become, through the alchemy of music and memory, something cherished and irreplaceable.
