When Toby Keith: The American Icon aired on August 28th, fans were left teary-eyed as Krystal Keith gave an emotional performance of her father’s song, “Don’t Let the Old Man In.”
Despite having to choke back her tears, the song, the last her dad performed live before his death, “turned out really special,” Krystal says, adding that “he would’ve been proud.”
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The country music world was completely shaken on February 5, 2024, when it was announced that cancer claimed the life of the 62-year-old, Oklahoma-born Toby Keith.On February 9, his daughter 38-year-old daughter Krystal shared an emotional post on social media, describing her heartbreak.
“I am shattered. As great as he was in his career, he was so much greater as a dad and a husband and a Pop Pop. He was my hero,” she starts. “The pain is so unbelievably deep and it feels like I have a literal broken heart but I know that it wouldn’t hurt so bad if we didn’t love him and get to be loved so deeply by him. He never made me wonder if he would be there for me.”
‘Don’t Let the Old Man In’
Keith, who broke into the country music scene in 1993 with the song “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” was an outspoken patriot with more than 30 years of topping the charts with his toe-tapping tunes.
In September 2023, a little more than one year after announcing he had stomach cancer, Keith vowed to perform at the People’s Choice Awards, where he received the Icon Award.
Accepting the award prior to his performance, Keith, frail and thin, stepped on stage and joked “I bet you all never thought you’d see me in skinny jeans.”
And then he performed a lesser-known song, “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” which was written for Clint Eastwood’s 2018 film The Mule.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience, when Keith sang the lyrics to the haunting song that tells the story of an old man refusing to surrender to death.
“Many moons I have lived/My body’s weathered and worn/Ask yourself how would you be/If you didn’t know the day you were born.” The song continues, “When he rides up on his horse/And you feel that cold bitter wind/Look out your window and smile/Don’t let the old man in.”
It was Keith’s last live performance.
‘He would’ve been proud’
On August 28, Toby Keith: American Icon invited guests from around the world to tune in and watch featured guests like Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryant and Lainey Wilson perform a two-hour tribute for the late star.
Also stepping on stage for a highly anticipated performance was country music artist Krystal.
“He was an, ‘Aw shucks, this is not necessary’ kind of guy,” Krystal tells People about the event. “He wouldn’t want us to have this big thing for him, but he would also be honored that those artists took time out of their schedules and made that happen and honored him in such a way and said such nice words about him.”
The “Daddy Dance with Me” singer, who says she misses her dad “a hundred times a day,” explains the stage at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, was designed to be “authentically Toby Keith.”
“It really epitomizes who he was and hits all of the things he loved in his life: his family, his foundation, his music and the military,” she says adding the design also featured a bar on stage.
However, the most special feature at the concert was Krystal, who performed, “Don’t Let the Old Man In.”
“When [producers] approached me with [that song], I was like, ‘Well crap, I already cry with that song, just listening to it. I don’t know how I’m going to sing it,’” she says.
Wearing a glittering black dress and her father’s trademark cowboy hat, Krystal stepped out on stage and sang the haunting same words as her dad once did.
Tender images of her and her dad projected on the screen behind her, and the “literal broken heart” she said she suffered when Keith died, was expressed in her every note.
And much like her father’s last live performance, there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.
“It turned out really special,” she says, adding “I think that he would’ve been proud of it.”
A portion of the ticket sales from the concert will benefit the Toby Keith Foundation, which she says her dad would appreciate.
“I think a majority of the good deeds he did will never even be known, because he loved doing it behind closed doors,” she adds.
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