Toby Keith Explains How Clint Eastwood Inspired 'Don't Let the Old Man In' for 'The Mule'
Billboard.com 12/15/2018 by Cathy Applefeld Olson
Toby Keith knows a good hook when he hears one. And no one weaves a tale quite like Clint Eastwood.
That the two were sharing a golf cart last year at Eastwood’s charity tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. is both a testament to their friendship and a stroke of good fortune. The encounter led Keith to pen the beautifully haunting song that lingers at the end of The Mule. The Eastwood-directed and starring film, in theaters now, is based on the true story of a WWII veteran in his 80s who takes a job as a courier for a Mexican drug cartel.
Out on the green, 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, 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,’ ” Keith recounts. “And I thought, I’m writing that.”
What was to become “Don’t Let the Old Man In” transfixed the country singer/songwriter, who had soaked in enough about the film and Eastwood’s character to take a stab at a song. “People were talking to me and they would say, ‘Did you hear what I just said?’ And I was like, ‘No,’ because I wasn’t listening to any conversations. I was consumed by ‘Don’t Let the Old Man In.’ I worked so hard on it,” Keith says. “When I finally sang the line, I thought, it’s got to be dark, it’s got to be a ballad and it’s got to be simple.”
In what turned out to be another stroke of serendipity, Keith was under the weather the day he cut his demo. “I was sick as a dog that day. I was coughing and sneezing and thinking, this is terrible,” he recounts. “I gave it the best vocal I could that day, and I sent it off. It’s a real raspy, sleepy, tired, sick vocal. I said, ‘Well now you’ve got a reference, and I’ll go back and put a vocal on it for you.’ ”
To his surprise, Eastwood called immediately. “He said, ‘I’ve got a spot in the movie and I’m putting it in there.’ And then Warner Bros. called asking did I read the script before I wrote this song because it fits perfectly.”
To his greater surprise, Eastwood didn’t want to change a thing. “He wanted it sick and tired and dark like that,” Keith says.
The song’s aesthetic, at once emotionally resigned and quietly triumphant, turned out to be right in tune with that of the film. Its refrain, “Many moons I’ve lived/my body’s weathered and worn/Ask yourself how old you’d be if you didn’t know the day you were born?” was inspired by another anecdote Keith had been carrying around about the grandmother of his 65-year-old friend who never had a birth certificate and didn’t know her age.
“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 and think that maybe if you were 40 and found out the cartel is putting drugs in your pecans you might say, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to do this because I don’t want to spend 40 years in prison.’
“But 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."
I've always told young people to be very careful of old people. Because a life sentence isn't nearly as long when you're in your 60's or 70's as it is when you're in your 20's or 30's.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I took my father to see the movie a couple of weeks ago. He's has Parkinson's pretty bad, hallucinates a lot. He's at about 25% of what he once was. He really liked the movie, it was easy for him to follow. Plus he's a big Clint Eastwood fan.
I thought the movie was just okay; about average. Good to see Clint in it though. I really like him too.
As a side note, (I haven't seen the movie yet) a graduate of our local school appears in the movie, along with his wife and band. From a direct request from Clint Eastwood, who enjoys watching the band's t.v. show. (the 'Ted' mentioned in the article is the person I'm talking about)
I've always told young people to be very careful of old people. Because a life sentence isn't nearly as long when you're in your 60's or 70's as it is when you're in your 20's or 30's.
On the other hand, I do think there is a mellowing that happens when we get older. I'm a lot less likely to react to a minor slight than I used to be. Like my older sister says "[bleep] the dumb stuff, its not worth it.". Or maybe its just low T, LOL.
Well, then there's the "Get off my lawn!" crowd. While it's true that some may mellow with age, it's also true some get pretty mean.
Let me give you an example. It's a rather hard and drastic example but one I think fits as it's the type of extreme case I'm speaking of.
Let's say you have a 16 year old daughter who is sexually attacked. Drastic example, I know. As a father, she is still growing up. She needs you there. She needs you to guide her. You want to be there for her graduation, her wedding and to see your grandchildren born. She will need you now more than ever to get past this tragic event. While your first instinct may be to murder this person, the big picture of it all may prevent you from acting on your initial impulse.
Now imagine you're in your early seventies and the same thing happens to your great granddaughter. Your children are grown. Your grandchildren are all pretty much grown. Your wife may have already passed away. You may have ten years at best left in your life. That may change you actions entirely.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Anyway ... its not a great song, and "The Mule" may or may not be a great movie, but "don't let the old man in" is a great sentiment. I had some adventures in surgery a couple years ago - spinal fusion across 3 blown lumbar discs, followed by having both hips replaced (not at the same time), and I got out of bed this morning walking like the Tin Man after being left out in the rain. Everything ached, and I felt ... old. I came across this article online, listened to the song, and darned if I wasn't inspired enough to go down the basement and walk on the treadmill, use the weight bench, and do some of my back exercises. A couple hours ago, I took the dog outside and shoveled snow while she ran off some of her cabin fever in the yard. Not the whole driveway, but quite a bit. So now I feel like I earned my beer this evening, which is nice. To other elders on the board - don't let the old man in - you're still you.
