The Story Behind the Only Song Toby Keith Co-Wrote With His “Idol” Merle Haggard

On February 6, 2016, two months to the day before Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday, the country legend performed one of his final shows at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom in Las Vegas. During the concert, Haggard’s close friend Toby Keith noticed that he was struggling and stepped on stage to help him finish the show.

“He’s on an oxygen tube, sitting in the back of the bus,” remembered Keith of the night they last performed together. “I said, ‘What in the hell are you doing?’ He said, ‘This show paid me $100,000, and if I can get through it, it’ll pay my band until I get well.’”

Keith recalled how Haggard made it through eight songs but had difficulty continuing on. “He was really struggling, and he called me up there,” said Keith. “I said, ‘I know every song you got, and I don’t need a teleprompter. Let’s go. Let’s have some fun.’ And we took off. We ran through the rest of the song list.”

Together, they got through the remainder of Haggard’s set, which included his classics “Okie From Muskogee” and “Ramblin’ Fever.”

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“Some of Us Fly”

A decade earlier, Haggard and Keith shared two duets, including one they wrote for Haggard’s fifty-eighth album, Chicago Wind, from 2005. Though Haggard wrote a majority of the tracks on the album and included a cover of Willie Nelson’s “It Will Always Be,” he also had one co-write, a bittersweet ballad written with Keith, “Some of Us Fly.”

Foretelling for both country artists, their lyrics hover over mortality and reflect on one’s life of accomplishments and disappointments.

We all come along, in our own given time
No way to compare, such unique design
But there’s one common trait,
To the scheme of it all
Some of us fly, all of us fall

When life deals you a hand, you don’t throw it away
The cards that you draw are the cards that you play
Some don’t give a damn,
Some give it their all
Some of us fly, but all of us fall

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Nearly a year after Haggard’s death, Keith remembered the close friendship they developed from the moment they first met during the early 2000s.

“He was a sweet man: He pulled me up on the bus, he got a guitar out, and we played on the bus for about an hour and a half,” remembered Keith. “It was that way just about every time I saw him. He always took the time to sit down, talk, drink a little whiskey, and get the guitar out and play something. It was great to me that my icon became my mentor too, a great icon that I worshiped.”

The two continued performing together throughout the years, and in 2005, Keith shared another duet with Haggard on “She Ain’t Hooked on Me No More.” Written by Keith and Scotty Emerick, the track appeared on Keith’s album, Honkytonk University.

“He’s the biggest ever,” said Keith. “He never did stray off the beaten path, he stayed exactly with what he did,” Keith said. “He never quit writing the same style of songs.”

Keith added, “He was my idol.”

Photo: Rick Diamond/WireImage for BMI Nashville