Riley Green made sure Toby Keith’s family was on board before he paid tribute to the late singer. On his song “Think As You Drunk,” Green sampled Keith’s 2005 track, “As Good As I Was.”
“We did sit down to write a Toby Keith kind of song,” Green said during an appearance on Sunday Today with Willie Geist of himself and his co-writers. “So we sent it to his manager. He played it for the family. They loved the idea of him being a part of the song and having that little line ‘As Good As I Once Was’ at the end.”
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Indeed, at the end of the song, Green included a clip of Keith singing his own track, a touching decision given that the latter singer died in 2024.
“It’s a moment that’ll kind of pull at you a little bit, but it’s also in a moment that’s very happy,” Green said.
Ahead of the track’s May release, Green told Billboard more about how Keith’s family reacted to the song.
“They completely thought it was a tip of the cap to Toby, so they wanted to have his vocal on it,” Green said.
The singer went on to reveal that, it was particularly meaningful, because his dad used to joke that “As Good As I Once Was” was written about him.
“It’s really a full-circle moment for me to have Toby’s vocal on that song,” he noted, before gushing about Keith’s impact.
“The best compliment I can give a song is ‘Man, this feels like a Toby Keith song,’” Green said. “Especially as a songwriter, I don’t know if there was a bigger influence on me.”
Riley Green Teases Forthcoming Album
“Think As You Drunk” came out ahead of the release of Green’s forthcoming LP, That’s Just Me, which is due out Sept. 18.
As he gears up for his career to pick up even more steam, Green said his songwriting will stay grounded.
“Traveling the world and playing shows and people chanting your name is not reality. I’m writing songs that are about real things,” he said. “That’s what keeps my focus and sanity in a crazy, social media–driven world… I think that the biggest songs I’ve written are ones where I’m emotionally tied to the topic in some way.”
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