March 7, 2024 • 32 mins
A little Mezcal. And a LOT of straight talk. Crook & Chase on the tour bus with Toby Keith for an epic conversation about the magic and the struggle that added up to his $400 million dollar fortune.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Crook and Chase Nashville Chats from Music Grow here
in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it's a bittersweet day. As we all know.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Several weeks ago, the great Toby Keith lost his battle
with cancer. And we have known this man since the beginning, Charlie,
for his entire thirty year career. But there's one interview
that stands out. I remember it so vividly. It was
twenty eighteen. He was celebrating at the time his twenty
(00:31):
fifth anniversary in country music. He pulled his bus up
behind the opry which I think was at the Ryman
at the time, right.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Between the Ryeman and Tutsi's Orchid Lounge, right right right,
so we you know, have our crew, Charlie and I
jump on the bus and just have a little bit
of a blast with mister Toby Keith.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, and as
we certainly witnessed, his bus is his home away from home.
Oh sure, He's surrounded by food, refreshments, family, friends, even
his dog. And his dog kept eyeing me and just
tossing the occasional courtesy.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Part that is a train guard dog. Charlie, You're lucky
it didn't it talk?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Well, okay, I think I got off I got off
easy then. But anyway, it's one of those things where
we go to Toby. He's comfortable on his bus, and
that's where we get a lot of fun and revealing
answers from Toby.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
About his entire life and career. Here is how it went,
the moment we stepped on Toby Keith's bus.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Are we all good?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, you're right here. You got the little blue MinC.
I have a very important question though. Okay, what if
you're very very nice?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
People asked me if I would like something to drink,
and I said, sure, a water, And so they got
into your fridge and they pulled out of water and
it has your picture on it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I thought, oh gosh, logo. Yeah, so uh, how
do you get your own water?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
You just tell and put your your logo. Yeah, put
your logo. But it's on everything I have. It's everything
I have. We branded, We ride for the brand sister.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Even I'm telling you brother, So I was hoping to
be vodka.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Act was a little disappointed.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well there you go, guys. Yeah, it's bottled water. Because
you can't get the city to run the line to
the bus. Am I right?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
We got a we got a IV hook up for vodka.
If you want that would be laid down over and
taking nap.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Wake up right there you'll feel you'll feel v fashed.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
You know you have a lot of people on bus here?
How many people normally travel when you have yeah, full right.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
There's always between six, seven and ten buses depending on production,
and six to nine trucks depending on what the we's doing.
When we had to do all the big Ford truck
robots stuff we did, it was like a ten eleven
truck deal. You'll have ten to eleven on each bus.
(03:06):
I think we've hauled between fifty and eighty and then
local crew, so it's yeah, that's a big operation.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I feel a.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Little left out. Charlie has a beer? What's in your
red solo cup?
Speaker 6 (03:20):
Mess scale? You want something?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
No, sir, I know why are you asking?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I just shit over and drink your logo water. By
the way, there's a black dog about the size of
the back of the bus down the bus.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Whose dog is that? That's ours? What's the dog's name, Luna?
She's a trained German shepherd.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Oh hey, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Big time, so should I be aware. I'm afraid of
You're in command.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
We just have to be careful not say the word
Charlie too.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Because then what happened?
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Everybody else? Shut up Charlie, anybody? All right?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Down to business here, down to business as we sit
here tomorrow night. You, sir, received the Nashville Symphonies Harmony Award.
I have to know your first thought when you heard
that would be bestowed upon you.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Well, I mean, I played Carnegie Hall with Jimmy Webb.
I did Boston Pops at Fourth of July and Boston,
and when you hear symphony, you know, and inter Nashville,
I was like, I think it was just you get
a bunch of stuff run by end. It's like I said,
I'll absolutely do that. So uh, they want to honor you,
(04:37):
fear all the charity work you do and stuff, and
you get recognized for that. And it's really not for
me as much as for all the people who work
three sixty five for my foundation. You know, they want
to be recognized too. Sure, so if I don't show up,
we don't get recognized. Now, this is a this is
a big time event. This is a white tie event,
(05:00):
and this is out of my league because most of
the events I go to our.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
White t shirt.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Who told you that, Charlie?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, trust me, you need to know white tye tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Do you have a taxedo and a white tie?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
I had a cool I had a cool duster tucks
made for just for this occasion.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Really, Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to see
you in that. So you tried it on you?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Look? Yeah, I don't even wear a shirt with Youssdale's.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Are you a Chippindale Tomorrow place?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Yeah, we're the We're more of the Pluto version of the.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Hey, congratulations on the twenty fifth anniversary should have been
We were.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
There, everybody that was.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
They brought all my retro people back from the day
that I mean industry people that you might not ever
see again if you don't have this event, and they
brought them all back. And the one thing everybody kept
saying was does it feel like it's been twenty five years?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
You know, really doesn't.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And I was only one of the room. It said,
absolutely feel like thirty five, man, And.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We knew you back when so many people did.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But it's just really an honor for us to have
been there when you started I'm kind of wondering when
you think about when you think back about that guy
you were back then, is he.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The same person you are now or is there a
lot of different?
Speaker 6 (06:29):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Same but better at my trade, you know. I mean,
I know you probably're gonna mention this later and I
will segue back to it however.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
You want to do it.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
But I couldn't have wrote Don't let the Old Man
in for this Mule movie for Cleanswood twenty five years ago.
You got to live a little bit to understand living.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You know, what would you want your twenty five or
so year old self to know then what you know
now about just navigating the business and being successful to
be more.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
I mean, you guys saw the whole thing happen. You
were there, so I I mean the first five or
six years, I was doing what they told me to do,
you know, and I was leaving behind stuff that I
thought my audience and me were going to be. You know,
you hate to get in all this. I know my audience,
Me and my audience are one, you know, but nobody
(07:32):
knows their audience better than they are exactly. And I'm
the one out there every night that's seeing the results
of what I did right, and they're back here just
looking at a number or somebody else's numbers in their
comparing it.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
When I got to How You At Me Now, and
I had worked my butt off and I got to
Hang You Out Me Now and they rejected that album,
I was like, I can't do better than this.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
This is the best I can do.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
So do I change and do what they want me
to do and try something else? Or do I stick
and say I think this is the best I've done,
And thank God that I was that I stuck with my.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Gun a crossroads? Was that happening?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
It was do or I it was your your going
home and it's over, or or we're going forward. But
if I go forward and I win, then from now
and I'm gonna be pretty hard to convince.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
To do with the other way.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Why God, you won big? You want big?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
When you since we're going retro here, what one decision
did you make in year one of these twenty five
years that's still relevant today and still very active?
Speaker 5 (08:36):
The first year I was out, I don't think, I mean,
I pretty much did what they told me to do.
I think Robert k Or wanted Ormond or somebody had
a I saw an article that I somebody interviewed me
back then. I said, they said, where do you think
this is going to go? I said, I don't know.
They may outright me out seeing me, but they won't
outwork me. Right, So you got that to go up
(08:59):
again your mind. As long as I can be here
and be relevant, I'm gonna I'm gonna go.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And that's what makes twenty five years work.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
That's how you make twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So you have been a workhorse. I mean, and you've
said it all along. Nobody outworks you.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So as you start the next twenty five years, what's
your mindset?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Do you still want to work like a dog?
Speaker 6 (09:21):
No? We don't we.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
The beautiful thing is like y'all know, when I came out,
I was on Mercury, second album was on Polydor, third
album was on A and M. Fourth album was on Mercury,
and then we got in our fight over how.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
You like me now?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And I went to dream Works and then in O
five opened my own. So show Dog's been on track
for thirteen years. Thirteen years show Dog's been open.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That seems like yesterday. I was at the opening of that.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
I mean, people even get to do this sometime.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
So being the new guy, being the only established artist
on all these different labels, they were shipping me to man,
you had deliver an album a year, but other artists
were going, here's my album, I'll give you another in
two or three years. And I was like every year
they made me so I had and I write my
own stuff. So I was having the right, right, right,
(10:13):
right right, but it didn't bother me. That was a
lot easier and being on the business end of a shovel.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Let's talk about writing, because a lot of fans, as
they listened to the iconic song should have been a cowboy, uh,
the most played song of the nineties, they may not
realize that it was written in the bathroom. Dare I
ask what you wrote the song on.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Mid breath? Whatever that means half a roll.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I don't want you to tell us.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
What that it did.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
It didn't involve you locked yourself in the bathroom for
privacy his own face, and I knew i'd get Charley
on that.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Well, all I said was mid breath and he knew.
So you want to tell her what you've been involved
to rest mark so we can edit out courtesy Flush Okay,
So there was twenty people hunting in Dodge City, and
Dodge City's gun smoke. So the town has a several
(11:20):
things in it that or miss Kiddies, long Branch, fastest,
you know it might be fastest, barbecue, and docs everything right.
So I'm there, I got gun smoke on my mind.
Somebody tells this highway patrolman trying to dance with this
young Calgary about half his age, you know, he don't
(11:42):
shouldn't dance with him, And he said he maybe you
should have been a cowboy. Right, So I'm like, I'm
tired of write that just sounds intriguing me. I'm going
to figure out what right. Well, I'm in Dodge City
and we're all twenty hunters stand two to two to
a room, and everybody's gonna get up at six o'clock
and shoot pheasant. And I don't want to keep this
other guy on the other side of the room and wait,
(12:04):
and I got my guitar because I figured there's gonna
be a campfire a little bit. And I know the
guy brought me up there wants me to probably sing
a couple of songs at some point, so I go
I got to get here and work on this song.
So I snuck in the bathroom and didn't even take
a pic. I just played fingers right and play soft,
and I wrote it about twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Where'd you sit inside the tube?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
See he's trying to get nasty, I know he is.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
That's okay.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
So and you keep coming over the wrong answers.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Hey, I was so. I was so all right, Charlie.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
I was so wrapped up in this song that I
sat on the stool and I didn't even have the
lid down.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
That's what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
We do you have a winner?
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Joker? Joker?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Toby Keith absolutely was a joker, just loved a good laugh,
as you can tell.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
But hey, Charlie, this is true.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
He was a.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Serious business man. He demanded excellence, not only from himself
but from everyone around him. So next listen out there.
If you ever wanted to work for a star of
his caliber, Toby described coming up in detail the qualities
he looked for.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
You're at the point now where you are going to
have a legacy. You will be known for a legacy.
What do you want to be known for after twenty
five songwriting? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah, and I think that what I was going to
tell you earlier is I think by not working one
hundred and thirty shows a year and just saying, hey,
you get June October, and then I want to go
do what I want to do because I've worked hard
for a long time. So I want to play golf.
Me and Roger Clemens and our families and Jim West
and all my buddies. We care We all go off
(13:50):
and all the couples play golf, and we we're Hawaii,
where Mexico or Florida. We're pro ams. Me and Steve
Stricker play at pel Beach every year. And I want
to do that stuff that I never got to do
because I was on the grindstone. And the cool thing
about it is, as writing goes, I used to have
to write almost every day to keep pace with the
(14:11):
label's bottom of mind. Now you can just sit back
and breathe and go when it comes in, you're just
like this, this is what I want to work on.
The rest of the time, we were working out of necessity.
Now you just set back and breathing you So it's
really refreshing to just set back and say I ain't
got to write thirty five So on. I just need
(14:33):
to write four or five and I know when if
I get on them, that that's going to be as
good as four or five as all right all year.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And see, I'm glad to hear you say this because
you're such an entrepreneur and you have so many irons
in the fire. It seems to us from outside looking in,
like with all these different businesses that you're just working
night and day all year long. But obviously you've made
it work for you to where you take your time off.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Wonderful, wonderful crew, wonderful. Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
I mean, I have no road. I have very loyal
people that have been with me forever, and they I mean,
I always like people who get up and they're motivated
and they go get self stuff done. You know, I'd
rather you come back and say, man, I tried to
get that done. They want it done. I don't want
to call you'all. Try to get done is the wrong
thing to do. I'd rather make a mistake. Is everybody
(15:21):
have to be told what to do. And my I said,
you know, get up, be motivated, get out there and
get it done. Be productive, and you're gonna make mistakes,
and mistakes are okay. Nobody's perfect. But if you got
thirty people stand up every morning going what I do today,
and you're having a direct traffic, it makes it makes
my day miserable. So my people been with me for
(15:45):
year decades and I have very little roll over here,
and they make my job very very easy.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Lucky man, smart man.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So having songs on the radio is one thing.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Having songs in the movies seems like them.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Yeah, suret go.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Different thing, Clint Eastwood movie, you have written this song,
don't let the.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Old Man in.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Let the old man, Don't let.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The old man in?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And did Clint Eastwood himself accidentally give you the idea
for this?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
And accidentally? I just absorb life every day, And every
song I've ever written is it's not because you sit
down and put words together. You live life and you
absorb it and and then when you sit down right
you you spit it back out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But he didn't know.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
He was giving, Yeah, you guys are just talking on
a golf course.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Now a golf course, and and he said, I'm gonna
go shoot a movie called The Mule. The same guy
wrote Grandchorino wrote it. And he said, I'm I'm gonna.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Shoot shoot this mule.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
And he said and then Tom Dreeson, the comedian who's
his old long running bud who was in our force,
and said, oh, don't you have birthday coming out? He said, Monday.
I'm eighty eight and this is Saturday. And I said, wow,
what are you gonna do? Ceb each birthday? And he said,
I'm gonna go shoot that movie. And I was like,
(17:07):
you're gonna go shoot a movie on your eighty eighth birthday?
Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (17:12):
And I go, what keeps you going? He said, I
just get up every day and don't let the old
man in. And I was like, you did not just
say that. And so I went home and I was
completely out of everybody's conversation for two days. People would
come and go, did you just hear what I said?
(17:32):
I just talked to you five minutes. You didn't hear
a word I said. And I was over here going
I'm working on it. I was completely consumed by it.
And I finally got it done, and it was like
the when I got the last word put in place,
it was like I just bounced and jumped two thousand
feet straight through the clouds. It was just like I
(17:53):
was a helium balloon headed for Mars.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Did you know you were writing it for the movie
or did you just writing it?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
He had told me what the movie was about, but
when he said the line, I was going to write it.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
So I was already influenced by all this.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
And then I started looking at him and I was thinking,
he's playing a guy his age. He's playing an eighty
something year old guy. That's a true story running drugs
and cartel. And I thought, who is the old man?
Is the old man? Is he father time? Is he
the grim Reaper?
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Is he what you say keeps you young?
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Is that's just the opposite of I need to stay
young by not letting the old man in. So I
kind of gave him two or three versions. And then
my wife best one of my wife's best friends, she
is sixty five, and her mother and grandmother alive, and
her grandmother had a birthday and they were talking to
her and they said, how old are you, grandma? And
(18:53):
she said, I was born in the barn and I
don't have a birth certificate, so it don't matter. I
don't know how was it if you don't know how old?
And I was like, so I had that thought going
So when I got to the bridge of this song,
I was like, I need something that doesn't say don't
let the old man in, but means that much important.
(19:13):
So I said, ask yourself, how old would you be
if you didn't know the day.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
He was born?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
So I sent it to Clint Wednesday night, eight o'clock
ten o'clock. Next morning, I got a phone call. He goes,
I'm putting this in a movie, and I was like, oh.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
You sure are, old buddy, off for it.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Back to the moment you finished the song. How do
you know when a song is finished well through.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
The clouds, right, Yeah, that's when you jump. That's when
you jump back.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, I know. It's when you jump. All of a sudden,
the clouds go by, you go off finish. No, it's
it's uh, most songs, most songs don't matter if you
write a whole bunch of songs. Most songs you just
finish them to finish them. But when you get hooked
into a this is one thousand pound blue barnline, you
know what I mean. This is the this is the
tournament winning fished right here. You know, this is the
(20:01):
big tuna. And I knew that that idea don't let
the old man and was very very big and important.
And then as I got down, I go, I'm gonna
put this channel in here and lay this bridge in
And then I was reminded of our friend's grandmother, and
I went, oh, this is so good right here, so
(20:23):
other life experiences, and I laid it in there my
way and said made it fit. And I was like,
there's no way. I'm thinking, there's no way they can't
put this in that movie if this is about an
old man. So to get this I sent it to him.
He says, I got a spot picked up to put
it in. He goes into warn brothers lazy and then says,
put it in this spot and right where he put
(20:46):
it and right where it ended. Needed know edit it
was to the second And he goes to people said
did he read the script or see the movie or
did you give him any any advice? Clint goes, I
didn't even know. He's right and something.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
You know, what what a way to cap twenty five years,
you know, go back to when's the last time you
listened to your very first album?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Just recently because they wanted me to find two or
three songs before I got signed that were like with
my whole bar band, the songs I had written. And
we started digging around and we found twenty five or
thirty that I haven't heard since they were since we
did them, maybe since I got my first record deal
when Harold signed Harold shit.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
So they found him.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
They go, they want to put these three on here
as bonuses, just to say this is what he was
doing before this album had And then they said, then
we're putting it out on vinyl. I go, cool, because
it wasn't even out on vinyl in ninety three it
came out. What do you think when you heard them?
(21:57):
I was the album. I was fine with the three
that we had before. I sound like I'm fifteen, Probably weren't.
That's the biggest fifteen year old trying to be tough
you ever heard of your life. But I played for
my family and my wife was like, I got meant,
that's pretty good, and I was going.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Right right, yep, right right. It was.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It was like, you know, it was I know what,
I know what I would fix on it today. If
I was writing those songs and I see the I
see the youth in't it? But by god, the kid
was trying you know what I mean, you mess it
up it the way it is when you hear the
three the other three songs that are on the album
(22:40):
that are before that's with me and my band, and
it was like thirty five dollars a narrati rent studio
and we're all in there and we're really doing our best.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So it didn't change anything.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
But they're real.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I'm telling you, they're good, man, They're good. The kid
was the kid was kid had his own deal and
he was going for.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
It all right after a short break Toby Keith's bucket list?
Did he accomplished everything plus his most prized possession that
made him say no to missus?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Merle Haggard, what do you think about the kid now?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Has the kid accomplished everything he's ever wanted?
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Well, everybody's asked me about my bucket list, and I've
accomplished everything on my bucket list. You really, I had
until until this movie thing came along and I had
to get a beggar bucket.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
I have.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I've worked movies with Burt Reynolds, shared guitars with William
hagg hundreds of times. David Allen saying at Carnegie Hall
with Jimmy Webb did MacArthur Park. I've done a lot
of wonderful things in my life outside of just right
and have hits. Clint was a different deal man because
(23:50):
my mom said I sat cross legged. She said, to other kids,
all watched cartoons afternoon, and you said cross leggings?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Had she said, when I said, where do you go? Baby?
Speaker 5 (24:02):
So when first grade there was like, what lunch pail
do you want? You remember our little lunch pails?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
We got?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Yeh? I said raw hide? Or she said, I said,
roudy yates. They might have a raw hide, they probably
don't have, righty. So I discussed all this with him
for three days. He treated me like his son. He's
a true gentleman. He has the biggest heart in the world,
and he loves life. And I think this song meant
(24:29):
as much to him. He was genuinely like a fifth
grade or excited when I turned that in.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, you took something that he just said from his
heart and you gave it a different life.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I mean, that's that's a little bit up.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
If he had just called her and said, you carefully
put a song movie, Warrener brother says they got a
spot for it. He was genuinely excited about it, and
that excited me that one of the biggest icons in
America culture ever is first of all, I'm getting played golf,
(25:03):
Clint Eastwood, Charlie, think about that.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
I'm impressed.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
And they he lays his line on you go write
a song to give it to him as a friendship. Say, hey,
we talked about music a lot. He plays piano, He's
wrote a lot of his scores for his movie.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
He's sent you.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Know everything, And I'm like, I'm gonna send this guy
a gift some music and bang a.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
Now they're going after Oscar with it.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So oh man, well listen, well, because we got your
man has.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
To get on the opera stage. So this big new
bucket you have, how are you going to fill it up?
You still figuring it out.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
It just has to grow on its own.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Now, I mean, that's pretty nice.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
That is pretty nice, said the said, The said the
old man. You don't want for nothing. I didn't you
know what I mean this kind of stuff. So this
twenty fifth anniversary things for Cowboy, it's been planned a
long time and here we get around to hear and
what do we doing? And we're in the middle of
(26:01):
the mules coming out the fourteenth, and it's Clint freaking
Eastwood and it's guy wrote Grand Tarino and they you
see the previews and you know everybody's gonna go see it.
And here comes big dog Daddy in with the How
did I end up in there?
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
And I think he sings along with the radio in
the movie on a Willie song too.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
So Clint, oh, I got to tell the story. So
he was up here O the day he had a wedding.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
And go to any can to my show, and I thought,
you know, he'll do a drive by. He's gonna do
the wedding and anyone's come out show and say hi
and thank you, thank you for writing that song, and
then he'll probably cut. That's kind of the normal way.
He gets him a beer, does the boxer walk in,
sits beside the stage, watches the whole show comes back,
(26:50):
gets him a napkin, gets him another beer, and just
sets the hell down. And we're just talking and I'm like,
I'm going So the elephant in the room was that
Warner Brothers was here, my manager's here, my family's everybody's here.
And I've been telling him he needs to talk, sing
(27:10):
or recite the last four lines of this song where
it says when he rides up on his horse, you
feel that cold bitter when look at your window and smile.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Don't let the old man.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Yeah, I said, wouldn't it be great when he rides
up on his horse right in the movie where it
gets that far? And I said that nobody would ask him?
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And you can't. You can't, I said, somebody asking me. No,
nobody had do it. So we're sitting here and I figure,
you know he's been here all day, so I just
go for it.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
I just jump off. Ain't no water in the pull.
I'm jumping Charlie, my boy. And I said, Clint, won't
you singer sought that last four lines in the room
just crickets. Nobody's going, oh Clint, that being Clint. That
be a help when idea, Hey Clint.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Everybody just sat there and I was like, thank you.
He takes a drink of his beer. He never looks
over at me. I'm sitting right beside. He looks straight ahead.
He takes a drink of his beer, and he goes
A man must know his limitations.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
You feel like I'll take that some note?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Right?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Yeah, boy, I don't know if I'm gonna ask him
at some point if he'll do it just for me
so I can just have it in my collection. But
wouldn't it be great for that movie? Then that song
start and that'd be really dramatic, And that goes to
solo and comes back and I do the bridge and
then he comes in with that iconic voice.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Make it happen.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I'm begging, but it's already coming out. It's already coming out.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I have an autographed picture of the cast a Rode
chev Woolley signed it, completed and handed to Telly.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
What was his other name, Ben Colter?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You should give that to Toby first twenty?
Speaker 6 (29:07):
She should?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Is she making a gift?
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Horse? Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Benny Benyon, the Golden nugget owner that brought Texas Holding
to Vegas. The mafia guy. He had a ranch in
Texas before he left there. He left his big ranch.
He liked to go from Vegas's ranch. He brought Texas
Holding poker to Vegas. His ranch manager who seventy five
(29:33):
years old now, that ran his ranch for him. Bennie
and Frank Maule, Frank h Merriles managers coming to night.
Frank Maule confirmed this on the phone the other night.
Benny Benyon, Hagg's dad died early, so Benny was Hagg's
father figure in his life. So every time hagg got
around Vegas, he went over and stayed with Benny. He
(29:54):
gave Manuel noody suit blue powder blue, says Merle Haggard.
That he gave it to Bennie to display at the
Golden Nugget when he got through with it. And you're
gonna pull up on the internet and do Haggard nudy suit.
You'll see Manuel standing there, and you'll see Haggard with
the vest and the pants on. So Bennie goes, or
(30:18):
Ronnie goes, I heard you played on Haggard's last show
and helped him get his check. I said, I did,
He goes, Well, I don't have any kids, and I'm
not leaving this scene by I'm saying this you. So
Ronnie gave me that full three piece Manuel nudy suit,
says Merle Haggard, right in the neck.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
I got it in my house right now.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
And his wife said, Hagg's wife said, when I played
the tribute, she goes, I heard you got that blue
nudy suit with the rhyin stones on, I gotta do it,
she goes. I will give you his guitar he played
the last eight years for that suit, and I went,
you got.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
A treasure there, Yeah, you got a treasure.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
You've got to go do a show. Thanks for your time, entertain.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
This is an honor to talk to you on this moment.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Ocation.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So as you can tell, we kept trying to get
Toby to get off the bus, get on the opry stage,
do your show, but he just wanted to drink mescal.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And keep on talk.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I know it's a compliment. He's so comfortable around us.
We've known him since The good Goes you mentioned in
the list of interviews.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Is just a mile long.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
But I will say this, you quickly learned that if
you're ever around Toby Keith, you've got to be leaving
with stories that you'll share forever, like we're doing right.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Now, and a lot of good jokes that you cannot
even say on the air.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Right we cut those out there.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I think those are on the heaven floor.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yes indeed, all right, Well let me tell you we gosh,
as you mentioned so many great memories of Toby Keith,
we will miss him forever, but thank God, we have
so much of his music and his talent to remember
forever and ever.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
You got it, and my friends, we have your country
covered and edited out in a lot of care. Listen
to the Crook and Chase Countdown every weekend on hundreds
of radio stations across America and streaming on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Chyl, You're funny.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Follow us on Facebook X and Instagram at Crook and
Chase
Hello, Crook and Chase Nashville Chats from Music Grow here
in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it's a bittersweet day. As we all know.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Several weeks ago, the great Toby Keith lost his battle
with cancer. And we have known this man since the beginning, Charlie,
for his entire thirty year career. But there's one interview
that stands out. I remember it so vividly. It was
twenty eighteen. He was celebrating at the time his twenty
(00:31):
fifth anniversary in country music. He pulled his bus up
behind the opry which I think was at the Ryman
at the time, right.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Between the Ryeman and Tutsi's Orchid Lounge, right right right,
so we you know, have our crew, Charlie and I
jump on the bus and just have a little bit
of a blast with mister Toby Keith.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, and as
we certainly witnessed, his bus is his home away from home.
Oh sure, He's surrounded by food, refreshments, family, friends, even
his dog. And his dog kept eyeing me and just
tossing the occasional courtesy.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Part that is a train guard dog. Charlie, You're lucky
it didn't it talk?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Well, okay, I think I got off I got off
easy then. But anyway, it's one of those things where
we go to Toby. He's comfortable on his bus, and
that's where we get a lot of fun and revealing
answers from Toby.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
About his entire life and career. Here is how it went,
the moment we stepped on Toby Keith's bus.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Are we all good?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, you're right here. You got the little blue MinC.
I have a very important question though. Okay, what if
you're very very nice?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
People asked me if I would like something to drink,
and I said, sure, a water, And so they got
into your fridge and they pulled out of water and
it has your picture on it.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I thought, oh gosh, logo. Yeah, so uh, how
do you get your own water?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
You just tell and put your your logo. Yeah, put
your logo. But it's on everything I have. It's everything
I have. We branded, We ride for the brand sister.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Even I'm telling you brother, So I was hoping to
be vodka.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Act was a little disappointed.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well there you go, guys. Yeah, it's bottled water. Because
you can't get the city to run the line to
the bus. Am I right?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
We got a we got a IV hook up for vodka.
If you want that would be laid down over and
taking nap.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Wake up right there you'll feel you'll feel v fashed.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
You know you have a lot of people on bus here?
How many people normally travel when you have yeah, full right.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
There's always between six, seven and ten buses depending on production,
and six to nine trucks depending on what the we's doing.
When we had to do all the big Ford truck
robots stuff we did, it was like a ten eleven
truck deal. You'll have ten to eleven on each bus.
(03:06):
I think we've hauled between fifty and eighty and then
local crew, so it's yeah, that's a big operation.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I feel a.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Little left out. Charlie has a beer? What's in your
red solo cup?
Speaker 6 (03:20):
Mess scale? You want something?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
No, sir, I know why are you asking?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I just shit over and drink your logo water. By
the way, there's a black dog about the size of
the back of the bus down the bus.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Whose dog is that? That's ours? What's the dog's name, Luna?
She's a trained German shepherd.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Oh hey, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Big time, so should I be aware. I'm afraid of
You're in command.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
We just have to be careful not say the word
Charlie too.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Because then what happened?
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Everybody else? Shut up Charlie, anybody? All right?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Down to business here, down to business as we sit
here tomorrow night. You, sir, received the Nashville Symphonies Harmony Award.
I have to know your first thought when you heard
that would be bestowed upon you.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Well, I mean, I played Carnegie Hall with Jimmy Webb.
I did Boston Pops at Fourth of July and Boston,
and when you hear symphony, you know, and inter Nashville,
I was like, I think it was just you get
a bunch of stuff run by end. It's like I said,
I'll absolutely do that. So uh, they want to honor you,
(04:37):
fear all the charity work you do and stuff, and
you get recognized for that. And it's really not for
me as much as for all the people who work
three sixty five for my foundation. You know, they want
to be recognized too. Sure, so if I don't show up,
we don't get recognized. Now, this is a this is
a big time event. This is a white tie event,
(05:00):
and this is out of my league because most of
the events I go to our.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
White t shirt.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Who told you that, Charlie?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, trust me, you need to know white tye tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Do you have a taxedo and a white tie?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
I had a cool I had a cool duster tucks
made for just for this occasion.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Really, Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to see
you in that. So you tried it on you?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Look? Yeah, I don't even wear a shirt with Youssdale's.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Are you a Chippindale Tomorrow place?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Yeah, we're the We're more of the Pluto version of the.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Hey, congratulations on the twenty fifth anniversary should have been
We were.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
There, everybody that was.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
They brought all my retro people back from the day
that I mean industry people that you might not ever
see again if you don't have this event, and they
brought them all back. And the one thing everybody kept
saying was does it feel like it's been twenty five years?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
You know, really doesn't.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And I was only one of the room. It said,
absolutely feel like thirty five, man, And.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We knew you back when so many people did.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But it's just really an honor for us to have
been there when you started I'm kind of wondering when
you think about when you think back about that guy
you were back then, is he.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The same person you are now or is there a
lot of different?
Speaker 6 (06:29):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Same but better at my trade, you know. I mean,
I know you probably're gonna mention this later and I
will segue back to it however.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
You want to do it.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
But I couldn't have wrote Don't let the Old Man
in for this Mule movie for Cleanswood twenty five years ago.
You got to live a little bit to understand living.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You know, what would you want your twenty five or
so year old self to know then what you know
now about just navigating the business and being successful to
be more.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
I mean, you guys saw the whole thing happen. You
were there, so I I mean the first five or
six years, I was doing what they told me to do,
you know, and I was leaving behind stuff that I
thought my audience and me were going to be. You know,
you hate to get in all this. I know my audience,
Me and my audience are one, you know, but nobody
(07:32):
knows their audience better than they are exactly. And I'm
the one out there every night that's seeing the results
of what I did right, and they're back here just
looking at a number or somebody else's numbers in their
comparing it.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
When I got to How You At Me Now, and
I had worked my butt off and I got to
Hang You Out Me Now and they rejected that album,
I was like, I can't do better than this.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
This is the best I can do.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
So do I change and do what they want me
to do and try something else? Or do I stick
and say I think this is the best I've done,
And thank God that I was that I stuck with my.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Gun a crossroads? Was that happening?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
It was do or I it was your your going
home and it's over, or or we're going forward. But
if I go forward and I win, then from now
and I'm gonna be pretty hard to convince.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
To do with the other way.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Why God, you won big? You want big?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
When you since we're going retro here, what one decision
did you make in year one of these twenty five
years that's still relevant today and still very active?
Speaker 5 (08:36):
The first year I was out, I don't think, I mean,
I pretty much did what they told me to do.
I think Robert k Or wanted Ormond or somebody had
a I saw an article that I somebody interviewed me
back then. I said, they said, where do you think
this is going to go? I said, I don't know.
They may outright me out seeing me, but they won't
outwork me. Right, So you got that to go up
(08:59):
again your mind. As long as I can be here
and be relevant, I'm gonna I'm gonna go.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And that's what makes twenty five years work.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
That's how you make twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So you have been a workhorse. I mean, and you've
said it all along. Nobody outworks you.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So as you start the next twenty five years, what's
your mindset?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Do you still want to work like a dog?
Speaker 6 (09:21):
No? We don't we.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
The beautiful thing is like y'all know, when I came out,
I was on Mercury, second album was on Polydor, third
album was on A and M. Fourth album was on Mercury,
and then we got in our fight over how.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
You like me now?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And I went to dream Works and then in O
five opened my own. So show Dog's been on track
for thirteen years. Thirteen years show Dog's been open.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That seems like yesterday. I was at the opening of that.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
I mean, people even get to do this sometime.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
So being the new guy, being the only established artist
on all these different labels, they were shipping me to man,
you had deliver an album a year, but other artists
were going, here's my album, I'll give you another in
two or three years. And I was like every year
they made me so I had and I write my
own stuff. So I was having the right, right, right,
(10:13):
right right, but it didn't bother me. That was a
lot easier and being on the business end of a shovel.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Let's talk about writing, because a lot of fans, as
they listened to the iconic song should have been a cowboy, uh,
the most played song of the nineties, they may not
realize that it was written in the bathroom. Dare I
ask what you wrote the song on.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Mid breath? Whatever that means half a roll.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I don't want you to tell us.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
What that it did.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
It didn't involve you locked yourself in the bathroom for
privacy his own face, and I knew i'd get Charley
on that.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Well, all I said was mid breath and he knew.
So you want to tell her what you've been involved
to rest mark so we can edit out courtesy Flush Okay,
So there was twenty people hunting in Dodge City, and
Dodge City's gun smoke. So the town has a several
(11:20):
things in it that or miss Kiddies, long Branch, fastest,
you know it might be fastest, barbecue, and docs everything right.
So I'm there, I got gun smoke on my mind.
Somebody tells this highway patrolman trying to dance with this
young Calgary about half his age, you know, he don't
(11:42):
shouldn't dance with him, And he said he maybe you
should have been a cowboy. Right, So I'm like, I'm
tired of write that just sounds intriguing me. I'm going
to figure out what right. Well, I'm in Dodge City
and we're all twenty hunters stand two to two to
a room, and everybody's gonna get up at six o'clock
and shoot pheasant. And I don't want to keep this
other guy on the other side of the room and wait,
(12:04):
and I got my guitar because I figured there's gonna
be a campfire a little bit. And I know the
guy brought me up there wants me to probably sing
a couple of songs at some point, so I go
I got to get here and work on this song.
So I snuck in the bathroom and didn't even take
a pic. I just played fingers right and play soft,
and I wrote it about twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Where'd you sit inside the tube?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
See he's trying to get nasty, I know he is.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
That's okay.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
So and you keep coming over the wrong answers.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Hey, I was so. I was so all right, Charlie.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
I was so wrapped up in this song that I
sat on the stool and I didn't even have the
lid down.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
That's what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
We do you have a winner?
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Joker? Joker?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Toby Keith absolutely was a joker, just loved a good laugh,
as you can tell.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
But hey, Charlie, this is true.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
He was a.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Serious business man. He demanded excellence, not only from himself
but from everyone around him. So next listen out there.
If you ever wanted to work for a star of
his caliber, Toby described coming up in detail the qualities
he looked for.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
You're at the point now where you are going to
have a legacy. You will be known for a legacy.
What do you want to be known for after twenty
five songwriting? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah, and I think that what I was going to
tell you earlier is I think by not working one
hundred and thirty shows a year and just saying, hey,
you get June October, and then I want to go
do what I want to do because I've worked hard
for a long time. So I want to play golf.
Me and Roger Clemens and our families and Jim West
and all my buddies. We care We all go off
(13:50):
and all the couples play golf, and we we're Hawaii,
where Mexico or Florida. We're pro ams. Me and Steve
Stricker play at pel Beach every year. And I want
to do that stuff that I never got to do
because I was on the grindstone. And the cool thing
about it is, as writing goes, I used to have
to write almost every day to keep pace with the
(14:11):
label's bottom of mind. Now you can just sit back
and breathe and go when it comes in, you're just
like this, this is what I want to work on.
The rest of the time, we were working out of necessity.
Now you just set back and breathing you So it's
really refreshing to just set back and say I ain't
got to write thirty five So on. I just need
(14:33):
to write four or five and I know when if
I get on them, that that's going to be as
good as four or five as all right all year.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And see, I'm glad to hear you say this because
you're such an entrepreneur and you have so many irons
in the fire. It seems to us from outside looking in,
like with all these different businesses that you're just working
night and day all year long. But obviously you've made
it work for you to where you take your time off.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Wonderful, wonderful crew, wonderful. Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
I mean, I have no road. I have very loyal
people that have been with me forever, and they I mean,
I always like people who get up and they're motivated
and they go get self stuff done. You know, I'd
rather you come back and say, man, I tried to
get that done. They want it done. I don't want
to call you'all. Try to get done is the wrong
thing to do. I'd rather make a mistake. Is everybody
(15:21):
have to be told what to do. And my I said,
you know, get up, be motivated, get out there and
get it done. Be productive, and you're gonna make mistakes,
and mistakes are okay. Nobody's perfect. But if you got
thirty people stand up every morning going what I do today,
and you're having a direct traffic, it makes it makes
my day miserable. So my people been with me for
(15:45):
year decades and I have very little roll over here,
and they make my job very very easy.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Lucky man, smart man.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So having songs on the radio is one thing.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Having songs in the movies seems like them.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Yeah, suret go.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Different thing, Clint Eastwood movie, you have written this song,
don't let the.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Old Man in.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Let the old man, Don't let.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The old man in?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And did Clint Eastwood himself accidentally give you the idea
for this?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
And accidentally? I just absorb life every day, And every
song I've ever written is it's not because you sit
down and put words together. You live life and you
absorb it and and then when you sit down right
you you spit it back out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But he didn't know.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
He was giving, Yeah, you guys are just talking on
a golf course.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Now a golf course, and and he said, I'm gonna
go shoot a movie called The Mule. The same guy
wrote Grandchorino wrote it. And he said, I'm I'm gonna.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Shoot shoot this mule.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
And he said and then Tom Dreeson, the comedian who's
his old long running bud who was in our force,
and said, oh, don't you have birthday coming out? He said, Monday.
I'm eighty eight and this is Saturday. And I said, wow,
what are you gonna do? Ceb each birthday? And he said,
I'm gonna go shoot that movie. And I was like,
(17:07):
you're gonna go shoot a movie on your eighty eighth birthday?
Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (17:12):
And I go, what keeps you going? He said, I
just get up every day and don't let the old
man in. And I was like, you did not just
say that. And so I went home and I was
completely out of everybody's conversation for two days. People would
come and go, did you just hear what I said?
(17:32):
I just talked to you five minutes. You didn't hear
a word I said. And I was over here going
I'm working on it. I was completely consumed by it.
And I finally got it done, and it was like
the when I got the last word put in place,
it was like I just bounced and jumped two thousand
feet straight through the clouds. It was just like I
(17:53):
was a helium balloon headed for Mars.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Did you know you were writing it for the movie
or did you just writing it?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
He had told me what the movie was about, but
when he said the line, I was going to write it.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
So I was already influenced by all this.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
And then I started looking at him and I was thinking,
he's playing a guy his age. He's playing an eighty
something year old guy. That's a true story running drugs
and cartel. And I thought, who is the old man?
Is the old man? Is he father time? Is he
the grim Reaper?
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Is he what you say keeps you young?
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Is that's just the opposite of I need to stay
young by not letting the old man in. So I
kind of gave him two or three versions. And then
my wife best one of my wife's best friends, she
is sixty five, and her mother and grandmother alive, and
her grandmother had a birthday and they were talking to
her and they said, how old are you, grandma? And
(18:53):
she said, I was born in the barn and I
don't have a birth certificate, so it don't matter. I
don't know how was it if you don't know how old?
And I was like, so I had that thought going
So when I got to the bridge of this song,
I was like, I need something that doesn't say don't
let the old man in, but means that much important.
(19:13):
So I said, ask yourself, how old would you be
if you didn't know the day.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
He was born?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
So I sent it to Clint Wednesday night, eight o'clock
ten o'clock. Next morning, I got a phone call. He goes,
I'm putting this in a movie, and I was like, oh.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
You sure are, old buddy, off for it.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Back to the moment you finished the song. How do
you know when a song is finished well through.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
The clouds, right, Yeah, that's when you jump. That's when
you jump back.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, I know. It's when you jump. All of a sudden,
the clouds go by, you go off finish. No, it's
it's uh, most songs, most songs don't matter if you
write a whole bunch of songs. Most songs you just
finish them to finish them. But when you get hooked
into a this is one thousand pound blue barnline, you
know what I mean. This is the this is the
tournament winning fished right here. You know, this is the
(20:01):
big tuna. And I knew that that idea don't let
the old man and was very very big and important.
And then as I got down, I go, I'm gonna
put this channel in here and lay this bridge in
And then I was reminded of our friend's grandmother, and
I went, oh, this is so good right here, so
(20:23):
other life experiences, and I laid it in there my
way and said made it fit. And I was like,
there's no way. I'm thinking, there's no way they can't
put this in that movie if this is about an
old man. So to get this I sent it to him.
He says, I got a spot picked up to put
it in. He goes into warn brothers lazy and then says,
put it in this spot and right where he put
(20:46):
it and right where it ended. Needed know edit it
was to the second And he goes to people said
did he read the script or see the movie or
did you give him any any advice? Clint goes, I
didn't even know. He's right and something.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
You know, what what a way to cap twenty five years,
you know, go back to when's the last time you
listened to your very first album?
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Just recently because they wanted me to find two or
three songs before I got signed that were like with
my whole bar band, the songs I had written. And
we started digging around and we found twenty five or
thirty that I haven't heard since they were since we
did them, maybe since I got my first record deal
when Harold signed Harold shit.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
So they found him.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
They go, they want to put these three on here
as bonuses, just to say this is what he was
doing before this album had And then they said, then
we're putting it out on vinyl. I go, cool, because
it wasn't even out on vinyl in ninety three it
came out. What do you think when you heard them?
(21:57):
I was the album. I was fine with the three
that we had before. I sound like I'm fifteen, Probably weren't.
That's the biggest fifteen year old trying to be tough
you ever heard of your life. But I played for
my family and my wife was like, I got meant,
that's pretty good, and I was going.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Right right, yep, right right. It was.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It was like, you know, it was I know what,
I know what I would fix on it today. If
I was writing those songs and I see the I
see the youth in't it? But by god, the kid
was trying you know what I mean, you mess it
up it the way it is when you hear the
three the other three songs that are on the album
(22:40):
that are before that's with me and my band, and
it was like thirty five dollars a narrati rent studio
and we're all in there and we're really doing our best.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So it didn't change anything.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
But they're real.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I'm telling you, they're good, man, They're good. The kid
was the kid was kid had his own deal and
he was going for.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
It all right after a short break Toby Keith's bucket list?
Did he accomplished everything plus his most prized possession that
made him say no to missus?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Merle Haggard, what do you think about the kid now?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Has the kid accomplished everything he's ever wanted?
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Well, everybody's asked me about my bucket list, and I've
accomplished everything on my bucket list. You really, I had
until until this movie thing came along and I had
to get a beggar bucket.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
I have.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I've worked movies with Burt Reynolds, shared guitars with William
hagg hundreds of times. David Allen saying at Carnegie Hall
with Jimmy Webb did MacArthur Park. I've done a lot
of wonderful things in my life outside of just right
and have hits. Clint was a different deal man because
(23:50):
my mom said I sat cross legged. She said, to other kids,
all watched cartoons afternoon, and you said cross leggings?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Had she said, when I said, where do you go? Baby?
Speaker 5 (24:02):
So when first grade there was like, what lunch pail
do you want? You remember our little lunch pails?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
We got?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Yeh? I said raw hide? Or she said, I said,
roudy yates. They might have a raw hide, they probably
don't have, righty. So I discussed all this with him
for three days. He treated me like his son. He's
a true gentleman. He has the biggest heart in the world,
and he loves life. And I think this song meant
(24:29):
as much to him. He was genuinely like a fifth
grade or excited when I turned that in.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, you took something that he just said from his
heart and you gave it a different life.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I mean, that's that's a little bit up.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
If he had just called her and said, you carefully
put a song movie, Warrener brother says they got a
spot for it. He was genuinely excited about it, and
that excited me that one of the biggest icons in
America culture ever is first of all, I'm getting played golf,
(25:03):
Clint Eastwood, Charlie, think about that.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
I'm impressed.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
And they he lays his line on you go write
a song to give it to him as a friendship. Say, hey,
we talked about music a lot. He plays piano, He's
wrote a lot of his scores for his movie.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
He's sent you.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Know everything, And I'm like, I'm gonna send this guy
a gift some music and bang a.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
Now they're going after Oscar with it.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So oh man, well listen, well, because we got your
man has.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
To get on the opera stage. So this big new
bucket you have, how are you going to fill it up?
You still figuring it out.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
It just has to grow on its own.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Now, I mean, that's pretty nice.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
That is pretty nice, said the said, The said the
old man. You don't want for nothing. I didn't you
know what I mean this kind of stuff. So this
twenty fifth anniversary things for Cowboy, it's been planned a
long time and here we get around to hear and
what do we doing? And we're in the middle of
(26:01):
the mules coming out the fourteenth, and it's Clint freaking
Eastwood and it's guy wrote Grand Tarino and they you
see the previews and you know everybody's gonna go see it.
And here comes big dog Daddy in with the How
did I end up in there?
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
And I think he sings along with the radio in
the movie on a Willie song too.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
So Clint, oh, I got to tell the story. So
he was up here O the day he had a wedding.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
And go to any can to my show, and I thought,
you know, he'll do a drive by. He's gonna do
the wedding and anyone's come out show and say hi
and thank you, thank you for writing that song, and
then he'll probably cut. That's kind of the normal way.
He gets him a beer, does the boxer walk in,
sits beside the stage, watches the whole show comes back,
(26:50):
gets him a napkin, gets him another beer, and just
sets the hell down. And we're just talking and I'm like,
I'm going So the elephant in the room was that
Warner Brothers was here, my manager's here, my family's everybody's here.
And I've been telling him he needs to talk, sing
(27:10):
or recite the last four lines of this song where
it says when he rides up on his horse, you
feel that cold bitter when look at your window and smile.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Don't let the old man.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Yeah, I said, wouldn't it be great when he rides
up on his horse right in the movie where it
gets that far? And I said that nobody would ask him?
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And you can't. You can't, I said, somebody asking me. No,
nobody had do it. So we're sitting here and I figure,
you know he's been here all day, so I just
go for it.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
I just jump off. Ain't no water in the pull.
I'm jumping Charlie, my boy. And I said, Clint, won't
you singer sought that last four lines in the room
just crickets. Nobody's going, oh Clint, that being Clint. That
be a help when idea, Hey Clint.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Everybody just sat there and I was like, thank you.
He takes a drink of his beer. He never looks
over at me. I'm sitting right beside. He looks straight ahead.
He takes a drink of his beer, and he goes
A man must know his limitations.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
You feel like I'll take that some note?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Right?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Yeah, boy, I don't know if I'm gonna ask him
at some point if he'll do it just for me
so I can just have it in my collection. But
wouldn't it be great for that movie? Then that song
start and that'd be really dramatic, And that goes to
solo and comes back and I do the bridge and
then he comes in with that iconic voice.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Make it happen.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I'm begging, but it's already coming out. It's already coming out.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I have an autographed picture of the cast a Rode
chev Woolley signed it, completed and handed to Telly.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
What was his other name, Ben Colter?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You should give that to Toby first twenty?
Speaker 6 (29:07):
She should?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Is she making a gift?
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Horse? Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Benny Benyon, the Golden nugget owner that brought Texas Holding
to Vegas. The mafia guy. He had a ranch in
Texas before he left there. He left his big ranch.
He liked to go from Vegas's ranch. He brought Texas
Holding poker to Vegas. His ranch manager who seventy five
(29:33):
years old now, that ran his ranch for him. Bennie
and Frank Maule, Frank h Merriles managers coming to night.
Frank Maule confirmed this on the phone the other night.
Benny Benyon, Hagg's dad died early, so Benny was Hagg's
father figure in his life. So every time hagg got
around Vegas, he went over and stayed with Benny. He
(29:54):
gave Manuel noody suit blue powder blue, says Merle Haggard.
That he gave it to Bennie to display at the
Golden Nugget when he got through with it. And you're
gonna pull up on the internet and do Haggard nudy suit.
You'll see Manuel standing there, and you'll see Haggard with
the vest and the pants on. So Bennie goes, or
(30:18):
Ronnie goes, I heard you played on Haggard's last show
and helped him get his check. I said, I did,
He goes, Well, I don't have any kids, and I'm
not leaving this scene by I'm saying this you. So
Ronnie gave me that full three piece Manuel nudy suit,
says Merle Haggard, right in the neck.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
I got it in my house right now.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
And his wife said, Hagg's wife said, when I played
the tribute, she goes, I heard you got that blue
nudy suit with the rhyin stones on, I gotta do it,
she goes. I will give you his guitar he played
the last eight years for that suit, and I went,
you got.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
A treasure there, Yeah, you got a treasure.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
You've got to go do a show. Thanks for your time, entertain.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
This is an honor to talk to you on this moment.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Ocation.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So as you can tell, we kept trying to get
Toby to get off the bus, get on the opry stage,
do your show, but he just wanted to drink mescal.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And keep on talk.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I know it's a compliment. He's so comfortable around us.
We've known him since The good Goes you mentioned in
the list of interviews.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Is just a mile long.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
But I will say this, you quickly learned that if
you're ever around Toby Keith, you've got to be leaving
with stories that you'll share forever, like we're doing right.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Now, and a lot of good jokes that you cannot
even say on the air.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Right we cut those out there.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I think those are on the heaven floor.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yes indeed, all right, Well let me tell you we gosh,
as you mentioned so many great memories of Toby Keith,
we will miss him forever, but thank God, we have
so much of his music and his talent to remember
forever and ever.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
You got it, and my friends, we have your country
covered and edited out in a lot of care. Listen
to the Crook and Chase Countdown every weekend on hundreds
of radio stations across America and streaming on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Chyl, You're funny.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Follow us on Facebook X and Instagram at Crook and
Chase
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