Toby Keith’s Least Favorite Movie Actor

The country star is reportedly ticked off about a piece Hawke penned for the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone in which the actor details an alleged backstage squabble between Keith and Kris Kristofferson that supposedly took place six years ago at a 2003 Willie Nelson b-day concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

In the story, Hawke claims he witnessed a confrontation where an unidentified country singer told Kristofferson, “None of that lefty (expletive) out there tonight, Kris.”

Although Hawke does not identify Keith by name, he describes the country singer mentioned in the story as having “a monster hit about bombing America’s enemies back into the stone age,” an alleged reference to “Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue (The Angry American),” Keith’s 2002 response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

According to Hawke’s account, Kristofferson wasn’t too happy with the “lefty” remark, and asked the singer if he had ever served in the military.

“Have you ever killed another man? Huh? Have you ever taken another man’s life and then cashed the check your country gave you for doing it?” Kristofferson said, according to Hawke. “No, you have not, so shut the (expletive) up. You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

Kristofferson, himself a military brat, joined the Army in 1960 and eventually worked his way up to captain. Safe to say, he knows a little bit about serving one’s country.

However, while backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 5, Keith insisted that Hawke’s account wasn’t true, and that the actor did not name Keith because he didn’t want to have to face him later.

“I don’t know Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke wanted to do some kind of superficial Rolling Stone article. And he did everything he could to make his story the greatest story ever in Rolling Stone,” Keith said. “And it was a fictitious (expletive) lie. O.K.?”

Apparently, Hawke wasn’t the only target of Keith’s anger. The country singer also teed off on a reporter for Nashville’s Tennessean named Peter Cooper who wrote about the Hawke article and then asked Keith about it backstage.

What does Kristofferson think of all of this? The short answer is he’s trying to bring peace to all sides.

“I would like to state for the record that I am friends with Ethan Hawke, Toby Keith and Tennessean reporter Peter Cooper,” Kristofferson said in a statement. “Although I do not remember the events at Willie’s birthday party as reported in Rolling Stone, what does it matter?

“That was six years ago. I spoke to Ethan before I put out my statement and thanked him for the beautiful story he wrote for Rolling Stone and I also told him I did not recall the incident at Willie’s birthday party. This is the last statement I will put out about this nonsense.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Rolling Stone said the magazine stands behind Hawke’s account.

Click here for Associated Press’ coverage.

Click here for Peter Cooper’s article in the Tennessean.