Honkytonk U
I want my kids to go to OU, and I'm tight with some of the people there. Over the holidays somebody asked me if I went there and I said no. They asked what school I went to and I said I graduated from the school of hard knocks. I went to Honkytonk U. It just sounded like a title. I went and wrote a mini bio. It just fell out. I'd written it in my head, so when I picked the guitar up and started playing it sounded like old school Waylon. I thought, man I haven't heard anything close to this in 25 years. I played it for my producer James Stroud and he said let's go get some of the guys that used to record on Waylon's albums and bring them in. So we did.
As Good As I Once Was
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick
Probably my favorite song on the album. If I hadn't come out
of the box with "Honkytonk U" I'd have come with this one. It didn't
matter what order, they were going to be singles one and two. I can always
tell when I've got a special one as soon as I get done. My dad used to say
this line some. The first verse is about being with a woman, two is about
fighting, and three is saying don't sell me short because I'll surprise
you.
She Ain't Hooked On Me No More
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick
We had the old habits die hard idea one night. We got done
with it and I said, man this sounds like Haggard. I'd always wanted to do
a duet with Willie and I've always wanted to do a duet with Merle Haggard.
I got my duet with Willie, several times, but never with Merle. I thought,
let's see if he'll do it. He loved the song when he heard it and said
let's get it on. Great job on his part. I don't know if it's a radio song,
but I know the fans are going to love it. This is probably the most old
school album I've done. This just fits the tone really well.
Big Blue Note
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick
I've never written anything quite like it. It's just one of
those things that happens to you as a songwriter. You're going to write
enough of them that one's going to end up psychedelic or something. It
went where it went. It's a great "dear john" letter song. The title came
out somewhere and it's kind of a recitation. The last verse just ties it
all together. He folds that note up into a paper airplane and says if it
don't come back he'll accept the fact that she's gone. I like to say on
those that we happened to be the only writers up that night when that one
floated by.
Just The Guy To Do It
Toby Keith/Scotty Emerick
You think you're able to fix everybody's problems and then you
see this broken heart sitting in the corner and find out her lost love is
a really cocky, disrespectful kind of person. You're stepping in saying he
might need somebody to put him in his place and I'm just the guy to do it.
Kind of a fix-it-up man.