Keith Urban and Toby Keith are country legends in their own right. However, they didn't exactly hit it off when they met, at least not at first. The two Keiths of country music had a chance encounter at a bar.
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Speaking with Taste of Country, Urban reflected on the first time he met Keith. It turned out that Keith had recorded a song that Urban had written, an early success for Urban.
"I have a lot of Toby Keith stories," Keith said. "I had written a song with a buddy of mine, it was a Christmas song, this was in early '90s, mid '90s. I had just moved to town, and we heard that Toby Keith had cut this song, recorded this song that we wrote. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, Toby Keith, that's pretty cool man, it's freakin' Toby Keith.'"
So, when he saw Keith at the bar, he wanted to ask Keith what he thought about the song. Keith was sitting at the bar alone drinking when Urban approached.
"I'm down lower Broadway, which ain't what it is now, we're talking about '90s," Keith continued. "I'm in this bar and I look up in the corner, and there's Toby Keith sitting on his own drinking in the corner. I said to a friend of mine, 'That's Toby Keith, I'm going to introduce myself,' ya know?"
Urban was appropriately jittery about approaching Keith. He also felt a bit self-conscious about the song that Keith recorded. Maybe, I can blame nerves on the encounter. I'm not much of a public speaker myself so certainly can relate with Urban's anxiety. "It was never gonna get cut, so we were thrilled that he recorded it."
Toby Keith and Keith Urban Had Awkard Interaction
"I went over, and I go, 'Toby, hi. My name is Keith Urban, and I think you recorded a song I wrote. The song is called, "Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus,"' okay?" Urban recounted.
"Toby's had a few, and he looks at me, kinda surly, and he goes, 'Huh?'" Urban said. "I said, 'Oh, I think you recorded a song we wrote.' And he goes, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Oh, did you like the song?'"
However, Keith didn't really appreciate Urban bothering him while he was drinking. Rather than speak about the song, Keith was a man of few words.
"He goes, 'We cut it, man.' And I went, 'Yeah, no, I mean thank you so much. You obviously write a lot of songs, it's unusual for you to cut an outside song, did you like the song?' And he goes, 'We cut it, man.' And then he went back to his drink, and I just walked away," Urban said.
However, Keith would eventually warm up to Urban. Later in his career, the two ended up bonding while on tour together. They also got a late night meal together.
"Luckily, I got to meet him years later, and we had the best time. I rode on his tour bus for his 40th birthday, it was a hell of a memory because we pulled into a Steak 'n Shake at about 3AM. Sitting in a booth with Toby, eating Steak 'n Shake, it was fantastic."
