During a new conversation with TODAY, Riley Green reflects on the decision to pay tribute to the late great Toby Keith by interpolating ‘As Good As I Once Was’ into his new single, ‘Think As You Drunk’, and how Keith's family were immediately on-board.

Green confirms that, from the outset, he and his co-writing team, Jessi Alexander, Erik Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin, were looking to tip their caps to the Oklahoma native, “We did sit down to write a Toby Keith kind of song. So we sent it to his manager”.

Then, Keith's manager passed on ‘Think As You Drunk’ to the late country star's family, “He played it for the family, and they loved the idea of him being a part of the song, and having that little line ‘As Good As I Once Was’ at the end”. As the interviewer, Willie Geist, rightly points out, it's moving hear Keith singing again on a new track.

It's a touching homage to one of Green's primary influences, accentuated by the decision to include a clip of Keith singing ‘As Good As I Once Was’ towards the end of the track.

Green outlines, “Well, it's cool too, because you've got something that you know is a moment that'll kind of pull at you a little bit, but it's also in a moment that's very happy”.

‘Think As You Drunk’ is an amusing, witty tale of a man who is clearly incredibly inebriated, yet continues to protest to everyone he meets that he isn't as ‘think as you drunk I am’. It's a light-hearted and wonderfully old-school anthem from Green, with the new track set to appear on the ‘Worst Way’ crooner's next album, That's Just Me.

Elsewhere during the TODAY conversation, Green considers the new position he finds himself in as he gears up to release That's Just Me on September 18th, 2026, after having cemented himself as one of modern country's biggest names, “I'm a few albums in, like, where I'm at in my career now. And what's different is I always try to think about what got me here...what types of songs and where I was mentally writing from, and make sure those songs are always on an album”.

The excitement remains through the roof ahead of That's Just Me, and judging by the releases so far, it seems Keith's influence on Green's style will be felt across the 19-song record.