After Toby Keith died, Post Malone paid him tribute. Actually, he has honored the country legend on several occasions, and each time it felt personal.

It turns out that the “I Had Some Help” singer wasn’t just showing respect to the ’90s and 2000s great — he was remembering his friend.

• Post Malone included “Who’s Your Daddy?” in his set at Stagecoach last April.
• His new F1-Trillion album features nearly two dozen collaborations with everyone from Hank Williams Jr. to Jelly Roll.
• Keith will be honored during an all-star concert slated on Wednesday (Aug. 28) on NBC.

Related: Toby Keith’s Kids Are Still Really Struggling [Interview]

A late 2023 interview with singer George Birge led us on a chase to prove a wild night in July 2016 actually happened. The show was in Virginia Beach, and it was actually on Keith’s birthday (July 8).

Birge was a part of country duo Waterloo Revival at the time. They were signed to Keith’s Show Dog Records record label.

“He was like, ‘Aright boys. Meet me at the bus after the show,'” Birge recalls.

“Then, he’s like, ‘OK, I want to introduce you to my friends. Boys this is (Navy) Seal Team 6 and this is Post Malone.’ And we all went up on the bus and me, Post Malone, Toby Keith and Seal Team 6 played guitar until 4 o’clock in the morning on Toby’s bus.”

Proof? We found it.

A few months later, Post Malone — barely a year removed from debuting with “White Iverson” — tweeted about it. The video above includes a pretty special picture of Post with Toby, as well as video of the two men singing.

Birge recalls limping it to the airport afterward to catch a 6AM, and looking back, he calls it one of the best nights of his life. The moment proves that even before Post Malone “went country” he was leaning into relationships with the top stars of the format.

Keith died in February 2024, just two months after Birge spoke with ToC. One has to wonder if he’d lived, if Post Malone would have featured him on F1-Trillion, too.

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.