Jamey Johnson Recalls the Song He and Toby Keith Never Got to Finish

Jamey Johnson shared a deep bond with the late country legend Toby Keith. When Keith passed away in early 2024 after a battle with stomach cancer, Johnson was left not only with cherished memories of their friendship, but also with all the plans they never got to finish.

Sitting down for an interview with Dillon Weldon on the Drifting Cowboy podcast, filmed inside Johnny Cash’s iconic Cash Cabin Studio in Tennessee, Johnson revealed that one of the things they didn’t get around to completing was a song they had written over the phone.

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

After that call, the pair of hitmakers never got the chance to see what the song might’ve become. Johnson didn’t reveal much about its storyline, but the moment brought back memories of the many things they had dreamed up together, some of which was far more ambitious than just finishing a song.

“One of the things he and I were talking about doing, he was absolutely dead a** serious. He said, ‘let’s go do 365.’ I was like, ‘how?’ He’s like, ‘you let the agents sort that s**t out?’ He’s like, ‘let’s just go do a 365.’ That means playing every night for a year,” Johnson explained. “That’s how Toby was, man. He looked at things that were impossible to do and would just laugh at it.”

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Johnson Say Keith As A “Big Brother” Figure

The “In Color” singer went on to admit that he always viewed Toby Keith like a big brother, who was always around and trying to give advice whether it was wanted or not. On top of that, he was always there when Johnson needed him, whether it be drawing a crowd for a local charity event or encouraging him creatively.  

“He helped me out with a charity of mine down in Montgomery and came down there and sold every seat out of the baseball stadium and had people lined up on the rooftops downtown Montgomery. That was Toby Keith. Powerful,” Johnson recalled.

He says that Keith, as well as Willie Nelson and another late legend, Merle Haggard, were artists who he always looked up to. Keith and Haggard, particularly, made a constant effort to push Johnson to keep writing, even when he was in a creative slump.

“[They] would both constantly remind me, ‘Hey, I’d like to hear another one of your albums before I go.’ And yeah, when Merle passed away, it kind of stung a little bit. Wish I had gotten another one out before he passed away so he could hear it. And I guess I got caught not really thinking about it much, but Toby was always there nudging me along, ‘Hey, why aren’t you writing? What are you doing?’ It mattered to him.”

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Staying Busy With Touring And Writing New Music

Even though his dear friends have since passed on, Jamey Johnson still hears their constant reminders in his head and because of them, he’s still staying busy writing new music. When questioned about what he’s currently working on, Jamey Johnson simply shared that he continues to add to his massive list of songs that he’s written but have yet to be recorded and released.

“I am writing quite a bit right now,” he revealed.

Between his current trek, The Last Honky Tonk Tour, running through October, performing at the Grand Ole Opry and making time for days off with his loved ones, including his new wife, Brittney Eakins, Johnson doesn’t have many available days to spend in the studio. So while there are new songs in motion, it’s unclear when they will see the light of day.

“All I can tell you man, is I’m working hard,” he added.