Keith co-wrote “Beer For My Horses” alongside Scotty Emeric. While guest hosting on Shawn Parr’s Backstage Country this week, Keith revealed the backstory to the chart-topping track.
Keith immediately knew that he wanted Nelson to sing on it with him. “Me and William both had five number ones in our career, but neither of us had six.”
“When I worked in high school for a rodeo company, there was an old rodeo guy who carried a pint of Old Crow [bourbon] in his back pocket. And he had a big stick. He poked the cows and the bulls out to get them to the cattle out here. He would separate the bulls to load them. Cowboy had the draw. He had to single out every horse, every bull that got drawn. He would have to single them out back there and then at night, he would help him pat them down. And at the end of the night, when it’s all over with, he constantly taking a sip of that bottle. Putting it in his pocket, he pulled it out, ‘So you boys want some?’ We were teenagers, you know, we say, ‘Hell, yeah.’ And he would say, “Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.” So I always had that as an idea,” Keith told Shawn Parr.
Asking Willie
Keith had the opportunity to ask Nelson to join him on the song in person while dining at The Palm in Nashville. At first, Willie said he’d listen to it back at his office until he found out the title. But when Toby told him the name of the song, Willie signed on, saying, “Oh, hell, I don’t need to hear that. I’m in.”
Keith’s “Beer For My Horses” was later certified platinum and was the fourth single to be featured on his seventh studio album, Unleashed. Together Keith and Nelson went on to perform it live at the 2003 CMA Awards and even took home the ACM Award in 2004 for Video of the Year.
Click below to listen to “Beer For My Horses,” and check back all week long to see more from Toby Keith on Shawn Parr’s Backstage Country.
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