Remember When Toby Keith Hit No. 1 With ‘As Good as I Once Was’?
Toby Keith is known for his humorous songs almost as much as his patriotic anthems, and he reached the top of the charts with one of his all-time best 10 years ago.
Keith co-wrote "As Good As I Once Was" with Scotty Emerick, and released the song as the second single from his 2005 album Honkytonk University. The lyrics tell the story of a man who goes out to a bar with a friend, gets hit on by twins and gets in a bar fight to try to save his longtime best friend, Dave, who has been hustling "some great big fat biker man" in a game of pool. Though the narrator, says, "I've got a few years on me now," he boasts, "I ain't as good as I once was / But I'm as good once as I ever was."
The song was accompanied by a hilarious video in which Keith's character takes Viagra, thinking he's going to score with two hot twins, only to find out that one of them is unattractive and missing a tooth. The video's funniest moment is a slow-motion bit when someone causes Keith to slosh his beer on his boot, and he screams with rage, then runs into a huge man who proceeds to deck him, sending him flying with a single punch. The clip ends with Keith in an ambulance as he concedes, "I ain't as good as I once was / That's just the cold, hard truth."
The song was one of the most successful of Keith's entire career, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart on July 23, 2005, where it stayed for six weeks. The song was so important to Keith's career that Stephen Colbert even sang a little bit of it when he inducted his friend into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June.
“One thing we can agree about Toby is his songwriting talent…Toby Keith is an American classic whose songs resonate with family values," Colbert said, adding dryly, "For instance, the song I just sang is the heartwarming tale of a man in a bar who has sex with two women — who happen to be sisters."
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