Clint Eastwood shared that he’d be starting work on The Mule in two days, which also happened to be his 88th birthday. Struck by Eastwood’s relentless energy at an age when many are content to sit and reflect, Toby Keith asked how he keeps going. He said, ‘I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let the old man in,’ ” Toby Keith recounts. “And I thought, I’m writing that.”
“I didn’t try to take what he told me about the movie,” Keith says of his muse. “I tried to take the character he told me about, and look through his eyes. If you’re 85? What’s a life sentence at 85? I got the chance to make tens of thousands of dollars.” Keith pauses. “I might try it at 85.”
