Jamey Johnson Says That Toby Keith Tried To Convince Him To Do A 365: “Playing Every Night For A Year”

A friendship filled with good songs, laughter, and big ideas.

Jamey Johnson and Toby Keith‘s relationship was something special. While the two were not well acquainted with each other during the early days of their careers, they later became great friends.

“He was kind of like a big brother. There, whether you want it or not.” 

From helping each other with their respective charity efforts to pushing each other as songwriters, the friendship that Keith and Johnson shared seemed as pure as a friendship could get. Toby Keith wanted to see Jamey Johnson recording music again and often encouraged him to put pen to paper. In fact, Johnson shared that the two would frequently bounce ideas off each other, and at one point, they could have even collaborated on a song together.

Keith and Johnson were still actively working together on new songs up until his death. Jamey just assumed they had more time than they did, as Jamey recalled during a recent appearance on the Drifting Cowboy podcast:

“It wasn’t too long before he passed. I called him up with an idea and sang it to him over the phone. He laughed his a– off, and before I knew it, we had written a whole verse and chorus on this thing over the phone without even a guitar. Still just sitting there laughing and carrying on, and then he was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to run, I’ve got people here at the house. I’ll see ya.'”

The two sadly never finished that song, although when Keith hung up the phone, Johnson felt confident that the two would meet up either on a golf course or he’d make the trip out to Oklahoma. Sadly, on February 5th of 2024, Toby passed away surrounded by his family. He battled hard up until the very end, but ultimately succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of 62.

But finishing that song was not the only idea these two friends came up with. Jamey Johnson then shares with host Dillon Weldon perhaps one of the most outlandish ideas that Toby Keith presented to him one night.

“We were talking about doing a lot of things. One of the things he and I were talking about doing, he was absolutely dead** serious. He said, ‘Let’s go do 365.’ I was like, ‘How?’ He was like, ‘You let the agents sort that sh** out. Let’s go do a 365.’ 

That means playing every night for a year. Let’s go do a 365.”

Weldon comments on how hard that would be, and he’s not wrong. Think about the times when an artist has their voice give out on them, or their bus breaks down, and they can’t make it to a show. And those instances often happen with a day or two between the last night they performed. Doing a show every night for a whole year seems impossible. However, Johnson said that no challenge was too big for Toby Keith.

“That’s how Toby was. Man, he’d look at things that were impossible to do and be laughing at them like, ‘Okay, let’s go do it three times.’ Just to show them.”

If only some of those dreams had come to life…

After Toby Keith passed, Johnson credits the “My List” singer for encouraging him to get back into writing. Johnson says in the podcast episode that Keith had told him he needed to be writing for many years before he picked it back up, and his passing was the wake-up call he needed to get back into it.

“The writing was already coming back to me, piece by piece, but I still didn’t have any ambitions on making a record. When Toby passed away, it moved everything into high gear because I realized that that was the end of his discography, that we weren’t getting another Toby Keith record. And that’s what drove me to wanting to finish my own discography.

It’s what made me understand that I’m nowhere near done, and so it’s time to get busy. After he passed away, I immediately started talking about this session and started trying to get all the particulars in order. It was time for me to get in the studio again.”

If only Toby Keith could be in the studio with Jamey Johnson now. But I am sure he’s thrilled to see his old friend finally getting back to songwriting, blessing the world with his last record, Midnight Gasoline.

Check out the whole podcast episode while you’re here. There are some more wild Toby Keith stories featured in the conversation that are well worth listening to.

The post Jamey Johnson Says That Toby Keith Tried To Convince Him To Do A 365: “Playing Every Night For A Year” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.