Toby Keith. How you doing? I just can't even believe it. Well, yeah. At the countdown awards, we're asking everybody what they're counting down to, like in life. What are you counting down to right now? In life?

Yeah. Oh, the day my tour ends in Halloween, so I can go back to Mexico for my winter. I haven't spent a lot of time down Mexico in the winter in the it's like this is the first winter that I've never really worked any. I always pick a date or two, but I haven't done anything. I just stayed. I didn't want to come back. I was out on the beach. I was like, this is all I want to do, but um, no, we're getting excited. We got tour starting in June. I'll be out there hitting those amphitheaters 'til about October and uh, it's all I do anymore. I work June to Halloween and then do what I want to do.

What song is currently on your playlist, like you don't you can't stop listening to it, on Spotify? It's on repeat.

You know what? I've got um, I got my phone and I just plug on shuffle and I've got 5,000 songs, but it could be it's mostly just classic country. I like that. Yeah, that's mostly it could be Gary Stewart, Johnny Rodriguez, the Hag, it could be anybody.

You're one of country's biggest stars. So this will be a fun question. I want to know who would you trade places with for a day with another country music star? Like who would it be?

I'm not trade places with Carrot Top. I don't know if I'd trade places with any other country star.

You're like, it's been done. My life is that.

Yeah. It's the same gig. I wouldn't I'd want to go do something crazy like I'd like to get in those trunks Carrot Top's got backstage and dig through all his toys and stuff, see what's in the bottom of those things.

The Merle Haggard. Tribute. Tribute. Thank you. That's what you're doing tonight. That probably is a deep has a deep meaning because of the last show in Vegas. I was just talking about that.

Yeah, yeah, February 17th. I was in for a Super Bowl party in Vegas and I was gonna go fishing with Hag and I was gonna go hang with him, so he canceled all of his tour date. So I went to Super Bowl and my agent called, said he he is gonna try to work with a oxygen hose. He's gonna try to work a show in Vegas, a big paying show. One time, see if he can do it. So I went over there and I sat on his bus with him and tried talking him out of it. He said, no, I'm going on. So he goes up there, he says he's gonna call me up last song. I said, I'll be beside the stage, sir, if you, if you get run short, I'll be there. And he made about eight songs, called me up and we just took off and I did his list and when he would get his breath, he would jump in, sing a chorus. I'd start the next song. He would sing here, sing there. Then he finally got to the end of it. Did Okie from Muskogee, did his walk off and uh, got the old man his check, put him on a golf cart, hugged his neck and uh, passed away four or five weeks later.

That's so cool that you got to be there and then tonight you're getting to do this in his honor.

Well, they they honored him when they called and said, will you do tribute to him? I said, if you'll get the Strangers, his band, I'll do it. I didn't want to do it with my band or a studio band or something. Session guys. I just said, hey, let's uh, let's get the real guys in here. And uh, we worked up a great great list tonight and uh, they're killing his son Ben's playing guitar. Uh, good as anybody.

That's so cool.

Yeah, it's gonna be nice having the Strangers up there.