This was laid out perfectly and you couldn’t have done this one any better.
We lost Big Dog Toby Keith on February 5 after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. Fuck you cancer. Toby had recently made a return to the stage, where he performed three sold-out concerts in Las Vegas at the end of 2023 in what turned out to be the final performances of his life.
Toby also gave us his final recording on HARDY’s new installment of his HIXTAPE series – the HIXTAPE Vol. 3: Difftape. Which is a damn fine tribute to another ’90s country legend, Joe Diffie, who also unexpectedly passed away back on March 29, 2020. To drop this album on the four year anniversary of his passing…is perfect timing. This is how you celebrate a legends life.
There are 17 classic Joe Diffie songs on this project with 32 different artists (if we counted correctly) who leant their voices to pay tribute to man who had all of us singing along to “John Deere Green” in 90s.
In what turned out to be one of life’s poetic twists that’s made for a storybook ending for a legendary career, Toby’s final recording was a duet with Luke Combs of “Ships That Don’t Come In”. Which was also Joe’s 1992 single from his album ‘Regular Joe’. It was one of the best songs off of that album if you ask me. Thank God Toby was apart of this and it was on this song too.
Sometimes life is truly incredible in how things work out. We get to hear Toby’s voice one final time and on country song that tells a story about the struggles of life. We all bitch about a dollar…when there’s those without a dime.