Don't let the old man in
Photo:
Billboard
Toby Keith, American country
singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer knows a good hook
when he hears one. And no one weaves a tale quite like Clint
Eastwood.
That the two were sharing a golf cart last year at Eastwood’s
charity tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. is both a testament to
their friendship and a stroke of good fortune. The encounter led
Keith to pen the beautifully haunting song that lingers at the end
of The Mule. The Eastwood-directed and starring film, in theaters
now, is based on the true story of a WWII veteran in his 80s who
takes a job as a courier for a Mexican drug cartel.
Out on the green, Eastwood shared that he’d be starting work on The
Mule in two days, which also happened to be his 88th birthday.
Struck by Eastwood’s relentless energy at an age when many are
content to sit and reflect, Keith asked how he keeps going.
“He said, ‘I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let
the old man in,’ ” Keith recounts. “And I thought, I’m writing
that.”
What was to become “Don’t Let the Old Man In” transfixed the country
singer/songwriter, who had soaked in enough about the film and
Eastwood’s character to take a stab at a song.
I worked so hard on it,”
Keith says. “When I finally sang the line, I thought, it’s got to be
dark, it’s got to be a ballad and it’s got to be simple.”
In what turned out to be another stroke of serendipity, Keith was
under the weather the day he cut his demo. “I was sick as a dog that
day. I was coughing and sneezing and thinking, this is terrible,” he
recounts. “I gave it the best vocal I could that day, and I sent it
off. It’s a real raspy, sleepy, tired, sick vocal. I said, ‘Well now
you’ve got a reference, and I’ll go back and put a vocal on it for
you.’ ”
To his surprise, Eastwood called immediately. “He said, ‘I’ve got a
spot in the movie and I’m putting it in there.’ And then Warner
Bros. called asking did I read the script before I wrote this song
because it fits perfectly.”
To his greater surprise, Eastwood didn’t want to change a thing. “He
wanted it sick and tired and dark like that,” Keith says.
Billboard.com
Put on the headphones - or adjust the volume
on your computer's speakers, click on the audio
icon and relax for a couple of minutes while Toby Keith
sings, 'Don't let the Old Man In.' |
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Regards and best wishes
John Miller
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