Cledus T. Judd Pays Tribute To Toby Keith With Heartfelt Rewrite Of “Don’t Let The Old Man In”Published Feb 14, 2024 By Tiffany Smithson Aaron

Cledus T. Judd/YouTube and Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Follow Cledus T. Juddon BandsintownOne week after Toby Keith’s death, his longtime friend Cledus T. Judd paid tribute to the star with an emotional tribute to the tune of one of Keith’s most memorable songs.

Cledus T. Judd, a musician best known for his comedic tunes and parodies of country hits, put his comedy aside with his latest video – a touching tribute to the late Toby Keith. The star shared a video to social media Monday (Feb. 12) in which he changed the words to Keith’s song, “Don’t Let The Old Man In” to “I’m Gonna Miss You Old Friend.”

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“I was sitting in my hotel room the other night around 9:30 at night trying to think of some way to pay homage to my good friend Toby. I thought ‘maybe I’ll write him a song. He kinda always liked my parodies,” Judd said, adding that he had done numerous parodies of Toby’s songs like “How Do You Like Me Now?” and “I Love This Bar” in the past.

Cledus T. Judd/YouTube

Judd shared that he was going to call a friend up to help him co-write a song for Toby, but decided against it because “Toby wrote ‘Don’t Let The Old Man In’ by himself. I’m gonna write ‘I’m Gonna Miss My Old Friend’ by [myself].”

“So I sat there until about 2:30 in the morning and tried to do the best job I could do. I’m not a very good singer, but I hope Toby would like it,” Judd said as an introduction to the song.

In addition to numerous parodies of Toby Keith’s songs, Cletus T. Judd also starred in Toby’s music video for “Who’s Your Daddy?” in 2002.

The two men shared a long friendship, as made evident in an emotional clip Judd shared to social media after learning of Toby Keith’s death on February 5.

In the clip, Judd fights back tears and admits that he is “shocked and hurt” by the news.

“Toby and I kind of lost touch the last several years … but it doesn’t negate the fact that some of the best times of my life, during a great time in my life, was spent right there beside Toby. At one time we were pretty inseparable,” Judd said, recalling the videos, songs and tours they did together.

“Toby was an icon. That word don’t get thrown around often unless you’re talking about Elvis, Michael Jackson, some of them people. But Toby was an iconic, bigger, larger than life figure. A powerhouse in the world,” Judd said.

With tears streaming down his face he concluded the video by saying, “I was the lucky one. Just a little comic from Georgia that became really good friends with an icon.”

Watch Cletus T. Judd’s emotional message below.