Brantley Gilbert says that growing up, he always felt Toby Keith was a giant among men.

“When I met him, it became obvious that that was the case,” he says. The two didn’t just meet: They talked music and songwriting and life, and even cut a song together for Gilbert’s So Help Me God album (2022).

On Wednesday, Gilbert will pay tribute to Keith during the Toby Keith: American Icon tribute concert on NBC.

Related: Toby Keith’s Kids’ First Interview 

Hardy will join Gilbert to sing “How Do You Like Me Now?,” Keith’s hit from 1999. It’s appropriate, because the same trio recorded “The Worst Country Song of Time,” a Top 40 single from 2021.

Even thought they never wrote together, Gilbert had a ton of respect for the Country Music Hall of Famer’s songwriting talents.

“Toby would kind of leave you with your head sideways sometimes, just how talented he was,” he tells Taste of Country.

“There was the God-given element that was there, but there was also the part that he ground out himself, just through years of experience. At one point he just said, ‘I’m going to be me, unapologetically.’ To do that and succeed at it you have to be a man worth something.”

Gilbert is similar in that his success was not served up on a platter, and in that he also chose to be himself unapologetically. He wrote “Dirt Road Anthem” and fused heavy metal with country with songs like “Small Town Throwdown.” Tattoos and motorcycles were his version of boots and cowboy hats.

In fact, he’s even chosen to name his new album Tattoos. You can expect it on Sept. 13.

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.