Toby Keith’s Legacy Celebrated With New Covers Collection

A new covers collection from Apple Music celebrates the late Toby Keith’s status as a country music icon. Apple Music Nashville Sessions: Toby Keith Covered compiles recent Keith covers from live sessions by Ashley McBryde, Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, and Tucker Wetmore.

Each artist performed one of Keith’s classic songs during recent live sessions recorded at Apple Music’s Nashville studio—the latest of many tributes to Keith since his death last year. The covers are available in Spatial Audio exclusively through Apple Music.

“Toby Keith loved music and especially singer-songwriters. He would be so proud of this group of monster talent that covered his songs,” said TK Kimbrell, Keith’s longtime manager and friend. “Thanks, Ashley, Ella, Megan, Parker, Riley and Tucker! Y’all are truly the hottest of the hot, and Toby’s music lives on!”

McBryde kicked off her session with a cover of “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action” from Keith’s 1993 self-titled debut. She recalls of that era, “I’m 10, and I’m at an age now where I can pick songs that I listen to. When I think of the word ‘honky-tonk’ and what that would sound like, this is one of my references, like Brooks & Dunn would be a reference. Mark Chesnutt would be a reference. Toby Keith is definitely a reference, especially this song. And then, in my adult life, this song has stayed on my playlist, my bonfire playlist, my go-hang-out-on-a-boat-with-my-friends playlist, or pools or whatever the event is. This is one of my mainstays.”

Langley’s choice of cover is “Wish I Didn’t Know Now,” also from Keith’s debut. “What comes with being an artist is, I think, the full package,” Langley says. “I think Dolly Parton is another one. I think he’s up there with her in the way where he is a full performer all the time. Everywhere he goes, and onstage, he gives 100% of himself.”

“Who’s Your Daddy?” from 2002’s Unleashed is reinterpreted by Moroney, who notes, “It is my band’s hype song that we play before every single show, so much so that it made it into our preshow playlist. It hypes me up, it gets me ready for a show, and it’s just iconic.”

McCollum had this to say about covering “Who’s That Man?” from 1994’s Boomtown: “It’s one of my favorite Toby songs and one of my favorite country songs of all time. I feel like as a songwriter, I’m always trying to write songs from that perspective of the sad, heartbreak love songs about everything going terribly wrong, which this song encapsulates pretty well. You never had to wonder whose song it was when you heard a Toby song, and this one’s at the top of my list in his catalog. It’s an honor to get to do it.”

Green took on Keith’s 1993 breakthrough hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” saying it was one of his favorites: “I think because growing up in Alabama, we didn’t have a lot of cowboys. We didn’t have horses; we didn’t have big, long pastures like they got out in Texas and Oklahoma and all that. For me, that lifestyle of being out on the open range was so foreign to me, but also just seemed cool. I loved that song as a kid.”

Finally, Wetmore offered a take on 2005’s “As Good As I Once Was.” “When I hear the word ‘legacy,’ I think of legends, and Toby Keith is definitely one of those legends in my book,” Wetmore says. “Like the old saying goes, legends never die, and neither will his music. Toby Keith’s music, in three words, is legendary, nostalgic, and just something that’ll never grow old.”

Listen to Apple Music Nashville Sessions: Toby Keith Covered now.