When Toby Keith walked onto the stage at the first People’s Choice Country Awards in September 2023, he had been fighting stomach cancer for nearly two years. He was there to accept the night’s Country Icon award. He could have sung any of his No. 1 hits. Instead, he sang “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” a song he had originally written for somebody else.
To understand why that choice hit so hard, you have to go back to a golf course in 2018.
A question for Clint Eastwood
Toby Keith and Clint Eastwood were friends, and during a round of golf Eastwood mentioned he was about to direct and star in a new film, The Mule. Eastwood was 88 at the time. Keith asked him what kept him going.
Keith later told the story this way:
“I said, ‘What keeps you going?’ and he said, ‘I get up every day and don’t let the old man in.’ So, I came home, wrote a song for him called ‘Don’t Let the Old Man In’ and sent it to him.”
Keith wrote it alone, without seeing a script or knowing much of anything about the movie. Eastwood used it in The Mule. On country radio, though, the song never caught on. It peaked at No. 41 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Years later, Keith admitted the song “didn’t get its due.”
The diagnosis
In the fall of 2021, Toby Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He kept it private for months. In June 2022, he finally told fans:
“I’ve spent the last 6 months receiving chemo, radiation and surgery. So far, so good. I need time to breathe, recover and relax.”
He ended that message with a promise: “I will see the fans sooner than later.”
The night he came back
On September 28, 2023, Keith made his first major awards-show performance in six years. His friend Blake Shelton presented him with the Country Icon award. Keith was visibly thinner, and he opened with a joke.
“Y’all never thought you’d see me in skinny jeans. I want to thank the Almighty for allowing me to be here tonight.”
On the red carpet earlier that night, he had explained why he picked the song he was about to sing: “Mainly because I’ve been going through my cancer fight the last couple of years.”
Then he took his guitar and sang the words he had once written for an 88-year-old movie star. This time, everyone watching knew who they were really about.
The response was overwhelming. “All the girls are gonna cry,” Keith said afterward, “but I’ve had so many guys go, ‘Dude, I bawled my eyes out.'” The song that had stalled at No. 41 five years earlier climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.
Three nights in Las Vegas
That fall, Keith announced two concerts at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, on December 10 and 11. He added a third night on December 14. By November 3, all three were sold out.
The final show ran from “Big Dog Daddy” all the way to “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” Afterward, Keith posted on Instagram: “3 sold out shows in Vegas was a damn good way to end the year.”
Those three nights turned out to be the last concerts of his life.
February 5, 2024
Toby Keith died on February 5, 2024, at 62. His family’s statement said he “passed away peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family,” and added: “He fought his fight with grace and courage.”
In the days after, “Don’t Let the Old Man In” went back to No. 1 on Country Digital Song Sales.
He had promised fans he would see them sooner than later. He did, on a TV stage and over three sold-out nights in Las Vegas.
Seven months after he died, at the next People’s Choice Country Awards, his daughter Krystal Keith sang “Don’t Let the Old Man In” for her father.
What’s the first Toby Keith song you remember hearing?