It’s been nine months since the country music legend Toby Keith died at the age of 62 after a battle with stomach cancer. Despite this, he is still inspiring new music to this day.
If there’s a true measure of one’s legacy, this is it.
Keith Continues To Inspire New Music
Keith was one of the most beloved country music stars, as he was popular not only with fans, but also among his fellow artists. That’s why it should come as no surprise that the country artist Jamey Johnson is crediting Keith with inspiring the music on his new album Midnight Gasoline, which drops on Friday.
“The writing was already coming back to me, piece by piece, but I still didn’t have any ambitions on making a record,” Johnson, 49, told Billboard. “When Toby passed away, it moved everything into high gear because I realized that that was the end of his discography, that we weren’t getting another Toby Keith record.”
Which is another way to say, Toby Keith was even bigger than Toby Keith!
“And that’s what drove me to wanting to finish my own discography,” he continued. “It’s what made me understand that I’m nowhere near done, and so it’s time to get busy. After he passed away, I immediately started talking about this session and started trying to get all the particulars in order. It was time for me to get in the studio again.”
Related: Jason Aldean Pays Touching Tribute To Toby Keith At ACM Awards – ‘Love You, Toby’
Johnson And Keith Were Still Working On Music When He Died
Johnson went on to reveal that he was working with Keith on music right up until his death.
“We were working on a song toward the end,” Johnson recalled. “I called him up one night and shared a few lines with him, and he added a few lines and we turned around and wrote this whole verse. We laughed a bunch, and it was one of those that I thought, ‘This is great. There’s gonna come a time I’ll get out to Oklahoma or maybe he and I will meet up somewhere at a golf tournament, but we’ll have some time sit down and finish this thing up.’”
Sadly, Johnson never got the chance. Like many of Keith’s other friends, he had no idea just how dire the singer’s cancer battle was until the very end.
“He always gave me the feeling that this wasn’t nothing,” Johnson explained. “He was gonna beat this: ‘You don’t worry about me, pal. I got this” — and that lasted right up until February [when he died of cancer].”
“I don’t know what happens with the songs now, but I know some time is probably going to go by, and I might break them back out and revisit them later on,” he concluded. “But I think right now, the friends of his that I would consider finishing those songs with are still hurting, and it’s probably not time to start trying to do that just yet.”
Watch Johnson team up with Lainey Wilson to honor Keith with a performance of the late singer’s “Beer For My Horses” in the video below.
Related: Toby Keith Honored With Emotional Red Solo Cup Tribute At CMT Music Awards – ‘Whiskey For My Man, Beer For My Horses!’
Keith’s Death
The world was devastated when Keith passed away on February 5.
“He fought his fight with grace and courage,” his family told The Associated Press at the time.
Keith continued performing right up until the end of his life, with his final show being in December of last year.
“Cancer is a roller coaster,” he told KWTV one month before his death. “You just sit here and wait on it to go away. It might never go away.”
Check out that interview below.
While Keith will be dearly missed, he will always live on through his incredible music – which is an incredible thing, if you think about it. He’s never really gone, because with the push a button, you can have him singing again, just as loud as you please.