Toby Keith’s music will live on forever.
It’s still tough to think about the massive loss that the country music industry, and the world in general, suffered back in February. After a long battle with stomach cancer, Toby Keith passed away at the age of 62-years-old. Shortly before his death, the Big Dog Daddy got back on stage with a residency in Las Vegas. Those turned out to be his final shows.
When word got out that Keith has passed, tributes came pouring in from quite literally everywhere. Even the PGA Tour put out a post in the Big Dog Daddy’s honor, which just goes to show how encompassing Toby Keith and his music was to so many people.
The “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” singer had a number of high profile friends, and one those was all-time great pitcher Roger Clemens. Toby and the baseball great bonded over golf, and of course, country music, and we’re so close that Clemens even spoke at Keith’s funeral.
When Clemens was a guest on the 310 To Left podcast, he spoke about how big of an impact Toby Keith had on his life, and how genuine of a person he was:
“You got my heart going a little bit… I’ll just jump right to the Big Dog Daddy, Toby Keith. He was true friend. We all miss him dearly. Toby was himself when he was just starting and broke in with ‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy,’ just starting in little Honky Tonk bars playing in front of 10 or 20 people all the way to when he was a mega star.”
Sounds like the Big Dog Daddy.
The topic of Toby Keith, as it is for many now, stirred up a lot of emotions within Clemens. In the moments not too long after the country star’s death, the longtime Red Sox pitcher struggled mightily. However, Clemens always thought back to the bright light that Toby was in this world, and the catalog of music he left behind for all of us to enjoy, and that always brings a smile to his face.
As he explained:
“I got to speak at his funeral. That was a little difficult, and as you saw at the music awards, I was trying to keep it together as best as I could. It was very difficult because I looked over and his kids were there. Tricia, his wife, was back in Oklahoma. She didn’t want to get out in public just yet…
I miss him. He was a golfing buddy. Funny songs (like) ‘Red Solo Cup.’ He wrote a song about my wife and his wife Tricia, every time they go to the golf course… he wrote it in 20 minutes. It was called ‘Pro Shop Junkies,’ where they would go into the pro shop and shop away while we were trying to get to the first tee. The Big Dog Daddy left us with some great singing and drinking songs. That’s for sure.”
Effortlessly talented. Writing a song in 20 minutes? That was Toby Keith at his best. You can hear Roger Clemens talk more about the late, great country music star in the video below:
