Post Malone Honors Toby Keith In Nashville One Day Ahead Of Keith’s Country Music Hall Of Fame Induction
Toby Keith was honored with a posthumous induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, October 20th, approximately nine months after his death.
The CMHOF has a rule that they can not induct someone within a year of their death. This rule is in place to prevent any bias and sympathy votes after someone’s recent passing.
This case is unique because the committee voted Keith in before his passing. He was scheduled to receive news about his honor on February 6th, 2024. Sadly, he passed away the day before, on February 5th, 2024.
His family accepted his award on his behalf on Sunday.
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Post Malone Honored Toby Keith
On Saturday, October 19th, a day before the CMHOF induction ceremony, Post Malone took to a Nashville stage to honor Keith.
Malone sang Keith’s “Wish I Didn’t Know Now” with the crowd. Everyone sang along in remembrance of one of country music’s bests.
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According to a red-carpet interview by George Birge, Keith was one of the first country artists to accept Malone into the fold.
The interview was on the red carpet for the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2024. Birge recalled that approximately eight years ago, Keith welcomed Malone on to his tour bus, and they played country music together “until 4 am.”
In Birge’s own words:
“He had no boundaries when it came to genre, he just respected talent. So not a lot of people know this, but when we started touring probably eight years ago, Toby was one of the first people to have Post Malone on his bus before Post had his first hit—’White Iverson,’ I think.” He continued on to say, “But me, Toby, and Post played country music on the bus until 4:00 in the morning, and that was before anybody else in country music was wanting Post to come into the genre.”
Keith and Malone may have never performed for the public together, but they will forever share that moment. Birge continuen to say:
“And now Post is performing tonight [at the ACM’s], putting out some of the best country music, and to have Toby Keith be one of the guys saying ‘This guy should be part of this genre’ is pretty damn cool if you ask me.”
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Throughout Malone’s transition to country music, he covered or honored Keith whenever possible. His loyalty to the late star is touching. Watch one of his recent covers below.