Lainey Wilson and Brooks & Dunn also pay tribute to the late Country Music Hall of Fame inductee
Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar and Lainey Wilson paid tribute to Toby Keith at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday, backed by members of Keith's longtime band. Keith died in February aged 62 after a long battle with stomach cancer.
Brooks & Dunn kicked it off with a cover of “Should've Been a Cowboy”, Keith's 1993 debut single and his first Number One hit. tour-joe-satriani-michael-anthony-jason-bonham-1234877265/”>Agar, a longtime friend of Keith's, followed with “I Love This Bar,” a fitting choice for the tequila and rum impresario, who famously runs a bar in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “Toby and I have booked Cabo Wabo more times than we can remember,” Hagar said on stage. “It's hard to get thrown out of your own bar and we did it.”
Finally, Wilson closed the tribute, writing “How Do You Like Me Now?!” Lucas Nelson and Riley Green introduced Wilson, who performed Keith's anthem, a hit from his 1999 album of the same name.
When CMT announced the Toby Keith tribute last week, Hagar He wrote that “I Love This Bar” would be the “appropriate song choice”. After the news of Keith's death, he was posted a blank photo with a caption that read “I can't find the words right now.” But he soon follow this with a loving tribute, writing, “I first met Toby in September 2001 in Las Vegas and while I know a lot of people, I don't have that many friends. I just lost one of them.”
On Thursday, CMT will release an additional one-hour Keith tribute. He received 30 CMT nominations during his career and won seven. He co-hosted the awards twice: in 2003 with Pamela Anderson and in 2012 with Kristen Bell. Keith will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the fall.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/2024-cmt-awards-toby-keith-tribute-performance-1234999181/
