Toby Keith was an incredibly country music artist, but by all accounts, he was an even better man.
A rare combination, indeed, especially in the music industry, but I’ve never heard a bad word about him, in fact, quite the opposite… so many of his employees and friends have told stories of his pure generosity and kindness, but this is one of the best I’ve heard.
Cledus T. Judd, whose real name is James Barry Poole, was a guest on the Try That In a Small Town podcast this week, where he talked about his journey in country music and how he brings comedy into that style of music. His highest-charting song “I Love NASCAR” is a parody of Toby Keith’s 2003 hit “I Love This Bar.” He’s parodied a lot of hit country songs throughout the years, and he was also a very close friend of Toby’s.
He even went on tour with him at one point, and was the host of the show alongside opening acts like Keith Urban and Brooks & Dunn. This was at the height of Toby’s career, though a medical emergency came up while they were in Bakersfield, California, and Cledus’ mom had a heart attack. She lived in Georgia, so he was as far away as he could possibly be, and obviously at a very low point being so far from her.
Cledus recalled “bawling [his] eyes out” in his bunk on the bus, and Toby walking on and basically getting in the bunk with him. He told him that he and some of his team had mapped out flights from every stop on the rest of the tour so he could leave at any point and be on a plane as quick as possible. Yes, Keith paid for flights from every city for his friend so he could be there if his mom needed him at a moments notice. It’s hard enough to find people like that at all, much less someone like Keith who was a global star and had everything and more a person could want:
“He was good to my mother, he would call my mom and talk to her. Him and Trisha bought a Versace rocking chair for my daughter when she was born, which probably cost more than what it was to deliver her. It was a very expensive rocking chair. When we were out on that tour, my mother had a heart attack when we were in Bakersfield, California. I was as far away from Georgia as you could get.
Toby knew I didn’t fly, and I was bawling my eyes out in my bunk. Toby came onto the bus, and pretty much got in the bunk with me. And he said, ‘Look here, hoss. I got this envelope here. I know you don’t like to fly, but what I’ve done is, I’ve bought you plane vouchers all the way back home if your mom gets sick. In Albuquerque, you can fly out of Albuquerque. If she gets sick in Phoenix, you can fly out of Phoenix. If you make it to Dallas, you go to Lovefield.’ He had this whole thing, him and David Mile, mapped out the whole way. And man, I just bawled my eyes out.
I got on that bus, and we drove all the way across the country, three days, I think, to get home. And Sunday, I missed the last weekend of the tour, now you’ve got to understand, that was the best four months of my life. Here I am in Georgia on the last night of the tour when everybody’s out doing their thing. I was so hurt, I was sad, man.”
It’s simply impressive, and speaks to the type of character Toby had. Even behind the scenes, he was an exceptional person and as generous and kind as someone could be.
On the last night of the tour, Cledus was at home in Georgia, listening to the music of all his friends on the tour and just feeling down about not being there for the last night. It had been four of the best months of his life, and it was ending on a very sad note, no pun intended.
His phone rang about 6:30 in the evening, and it was Toby’s acoustic guitar player on the other line:
“About 6:30 that evening, my phone rings. And it was Joey Floyd, Toby‘s acoustic player right hand man. I thought, why is Joey calling me? He should be onstage right now. I answered the phone, it was just loud. and I said ‘Hello.’ And Joey said, ‘Shut up and hang on.’ I thought, what the hell?
And the next thing I heard in the background, the late Toby Keith on that microphone saying, it’s in Virginia Beach, and he said ‘Hey everybody, we’re missing a member of the show tonight. Cledus T. Judd hosted this entire tour, and he was not able to be here tonight. His mom is sick, and he’s in Georgia. And I was just wondering if all 15,000 of y’all could give me a little Cledus chat just for a minute.’
And man what I heard on that phone was ‘Cledus, Cledus, Cledus’ from 15,000 people. and Joey handed Toby the phone, Toby said, Love you, pal. See you later.’ Who does that for somebody? Takes that time, you know… Toby’s making 50 grand a night on that tour. I know exactly what he was making, but Toby was a bigger than life figure. And he did that for me, he knew.”
It’s just so heartwarming to hear things like this, and clearly, Toby’s kindness and generosity has stuck with Cledus all these years. It was all such an above and beyond thing to do, and there’s no doubt that Toby was one of the good ones, for sure. And if you want to read more on Toby’s generosity, read up on his OK Kids Corral… it will blow your mind.
You can watch him tell the story here:
