During a conversation with Kelly Sutton for TalkShopLive, Riley Green reflects on how important it was to him to honor the late Toby Keith through his new song, ’Think As You Drunk’.

Green has often expressed how influential Keith's music has been, with the Alabama native covering ‘Should've Been a Cowboy’ as part of Apple Music's tribute EP last year. This summer, Green interpolated the country legend's ‘As Good As I Once Was’ into ‘Think As You Drunk’, with Keith's vocals even being tagged on at the end.

It's a nostalgic, heartwarming touch, with a portion of proceeds from that song going towards the Toby Keith Foundation, again highlighting Green's willingness to pay respect to the ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue’ hitmaker's legacy.

While chatting to Sutton about the creative process behind ‘Think As You Drunk’, Green explains, “I wrote this song knowing it was going to be a funny, light-hearted drinking song. And when we got done writing it, we all agreed that it sounded like something Toby Keith could have written. And when we heard that, we decided to go to his management and go to his his family, and they all kind of agreed and heard what we heard, and they wanted him to be a part of it”.

He adds, “So we ended up putting Toby on the song. He's got a little line at the end of it, which is a great...tribute to him, I think. And it's such an honor to be able to, you know, tip a cap to a legend [and] somebody that really influenced me, [and] a lot of music”.

He touches on how conscious he was of paying homage in a considerate way, “Well, it's such a odd thing, you know? Toby had passed away, and...for him to be involved in a song, I wanted to make sure it was done the right way. I certainly in no way wanted to take advantage of somebody else's career success for my own”.

The ‘Different ‘Round Here’ crooner underlines, “I wanted it to be something that was letting fans know, especially younger fans that have found [me] in the last few years, that this is somebody that is a reason I'm in country music, somebody that influenced me dramatically over the years. And if nothing else, point them in the direction of some of his music, you know, and hear the similarities in this song and some things that he's written earlier in his career. So the fact that we could, you know, involve his family in the decision and his management, and then be able to donate some proceeds to his foundation, just felt like the right thing to do. And involving him and the other co-writer [Scotty Emerick] on ‘As Good as I Once Was’ as co-writers on this song, it really means a lot to me. And I think it's again a tip of the cap to somebody that was a big influence on me”.

You can undoubtedly hear Keith's impact throughout Green's expansive discography, with the latter embracing that same rural pride and unashamed ‘country-ness’ that Keith always embodied, without ever diluting or apologising for his roots.

‘Think As You Drunk’ serves as one of the lead singles from Green's eagerly anticipated new album, That's Just Me, which arrives on Friday, September 18th 2026. Alongside ‘Think As You Drunk’, the project will feature other stand-out tracks, such as ‘Go Again’ with Hannah McFarland, ‘My Way’, ‘Imagine That’ and more.