Toby Keith Lashes Out at Reporter for Rolling Stone Article

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The article talks about an incident in 2003 in which Kris Kristofferson blew up on an unnamed Country star. That unnamed star sounded an awful lot like Keith.
In response to the article, Keith began speaking backstage at the ACM Awards stating that the run-in with Kristofferson was not true, KansasCity.com wrote. He added that Hawke neglected to share Keith's name because he did not want to deal with Keith in person.
Keith said, “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.  And it was a fictitious (expletive) lie. O.K.?”
Then Keith went on to take his anger out on a Tennessean reporter Peter Cooper. Keith said, “He didn’t even call me by my name… He called Norah Jones, Ray Charles, everybody else by name. Willie (Nelson), Kris (Kristofferson). Why didn’t he call my name? Why didn’t he say Toby Keith walked through and said this (expletive)? Right? You know why. You know as good as anybody why. He didn’t want to (expletive) deal with the aftermath.”
See the video of Toby Keith backstage at the ACM Awards.
In the article, Hawke suggests that he saw the confrontation first-hand, backstage at Nelson’s 70th birthday tribute concert at Beacon Theater in New York. Keith’s name is not mentioned anywhere in the article, but the story described him as a Country musician who “had a monster hit about bombing America’s enemies back into the Stone Age.” The statement could be a reference to Keith’s 2002 hit “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American).”
Hawke said that the “unnamed” Country star told Kristofferson, 'None of that lefty (expletive) out there tonight, Kris.'"
Then, Hawke reported that Kristofferson confronted the “star” and asked him specifically 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? NO, you have not, so shut the (expletive) up. You don’t know what the hell you are talking about,” Kristofferson reportedly said.
So far, there have been no comments from Hawke’s side, but a representative from Rolling Stone said that the magazine stands behind their article and Hawke’s reporting.
Kristofferson is currently riding the fence on the story, trying to see both sides of the issue all while claiming that he does not recall the incident. "I would like to state for the record that I am friends with Ethan Hawke, Toby Keith and Tennessean reporter Peter Cooper. Although I do not remember the events at Willie's birthday party as reported in Rolling Stone, what does it matter?" Kristofferson asked. "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."