Toby Keith to Headline Harley Shop’s Summer Fest

Country star will rock Illinois dealership’s parking lot party June 17.

One day after he headlines Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Riverbend Festival, country music superstar Toby Keith will head west on highway 24. Destination: Marion, Illinois, to entertain guests at Black Diamond Harley-Davidson‘s annual summer concert on June 17.

Since opening the dealership in 2007, lifelong friends and Illinois natives Rodney Cabaness and Shad Zimbro have organized several high-profile events at the shop. In addition to the upcoming Toby Keith show, Black Diamond has also hosted shows by Hank Williams, Kid Rock, Poison frontman Bret Michaels and former Motley Crue singer Vince Neil.

The concert events also include mixed martial arts contests, professional wrestling, dog shows, and various fundraisers for the local community.

Of course, as the singer behind the 2010 hit “Bullets in the Gun,” about an outlaw biker, Keith is the perfect headliner for a Harley event. The country star is also a longtime bike enthusiast who often name drops his favorite ride in his songs and features hot bikes in his music videos, such as in 2008’s “God Love Her,” in which he sings, “She holds tight to me and the Bible, on the back seat of my motorcycle.”

“We’re very excited,” Zimbro tells The Southern Illinoisan about nabbing a huge star like Keith for this year’s Harley parking lot party. “I think it’ll be a great show. It’s the same stage that you would see if you were going to Nashville or St. Louis or wherever, anywhere else in the United States.”

Black Diamond, which is named after the area’s deep coal mining history, is one of the largest and most successful dealerships in Southern Illinois.

A year after opening, Cabaness and Zimbro had already outgrown the original space, so they purchased 3.2 acres of land in April 2008 and constructed a new facility. The two-story, 33,000 square foot building includes storage and facilities to recondition motorcycles. It has become such a fixture that the city renamed the street where the shop is located to Black Diamond Drive.

Ticket prices for the Toby Keith concert start at $48 and can be purchased from Black Diamond Harley-Davidson or on the shop’s website.

Even better, another of our favorite artists, Colt Ford, headlines a special pre-show event the night before, on June 16, at Black Diamond Harley-Davidson.