In October 2023, Toby Keith announced that he would be performing in Las Vegas. After a long layoff, the “As Good As I Once Was” singer planned a few rehearsal shows in Nashville. “First time in my whole life I’ve been off over two years. I’ve never been off a year in my life,” he said in a video announcing the Las Vegas shows. The country singer had grown restless from not hitting the stage. “I was going to sit around here and do nothing like I have been, or get up and go outside and don’t let the old man in,” Keith said in his video to fans.
The song “Don’t Let the Old Man In” was famously featured on the soundtrack for Clint Eastwood’s 2018 movie “The Mule.” It was Eastwood who came up with the phrase, as Keith recalled a conversation he had with the actor-director at a charity golf event. Keith had asked Eastwood how he remained so prolific at an old age. “He said, ‘I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let the old man in,'” Keith told Billboard in December 2018. “And I thought, I’m writing that.” While discussing the craft that went into the song, Keith said he became obsessed with it. “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,” he told the publication.
