Intro this is Marcus King the Nashville country music reporter at The Tennessean and I'm here at the uh 59th Academy of Country Music Awards during rehearsals with somebody who's honoring Toby Keith at the event Jason Aldi what's going on man uh just hanging man just got here always you know ACM is always a fun time man so we just got literally you were the first person I saw and I got so uh so we're glad to be here obviously glad to you know uh be able to to do something for Toby and honor him and um you know a song that I've played pretty much my whole career from the time I started playing in clubs to to even now clearly so uh Toby was a big influence for a lot of us in the business man and so was an honor for them to call and ask me to to be a part of it and and honor him so uh so that's why we're here yeah Meeting Toby Keith real quick so talk take me through the first time you realized that Toby Keith was a guy that you could know and actually lean on and say hey like I'm making a come up in my career and what do I need to do uh well I met Toby early on I met him probably back in in 2004 2005 somewhere in there and um yeah I didn't really have any hits yet met him at a bar out in Los Vegas and uh you know hung out a little bit and then we went on tour with him a little bit and that was kind of where I got to know him and uh you know and then after that a lot of times you tour with somebody you spend a lot of time with them and then the next year everybody goes on and does their you know their separate ways does their own thing and then you just kind of catch up with people here and there and that was kind of how it was with Toby and then I had a chance to he came out to our show show in October and down in Oklahoma and um you know was able to get on stage with us and play and you know it's one of his last performance so really uh really cool thing for us to be able to kind of share that with him right there you know toward the end of his his life I think he did uh a run of shows out in Vegas you know a month or so later and that was it so uh he was just a he was a big influence for a lot of us man and and me even when I started playing in clubs early on at 14 15 years old you know I was up there playing should have been a cowboy so uh so it's really cool it's it's kind of a full circle moment to be able to come here and play it for him and um you know honor his legacy abely real quick just Let Your Boys Be Country uh let your boys be country how's it going for you with seeing it at radio and doing well thoughts about that yeah it's great man let your boys be country is uh is the current single it's off the highway Desperado album uh been doing really well for us and and then uh we're kicking kicking off the second leg of the how Desperado tour I think in July and uh so that'll kind of take us through the end of the year and uh take us to some some free time where we can start working on a new record but but right now it's great we got I think we got let your boys be country maybe a couple more singles off this album before we switch it up and go to a new record absolutely well thank you so much for your time absolutely been Marcus K ding the Nashville country music report of Tennessee and here at the 59th ACM Awards with Jason aling