Riley Green has turned his new music into a tribute to Toby Keith. The Think as You Drunk video ends with Keith’s cameo, and the release also sends a portion of proceeds to the Toby Keith Foundation.
Green co-wrote the song in 20 minutes with Erik Dylan, Jessi Alexander, and Wyatt McCubbin, then folded in a sample from Keith’s 2005 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topper As Good as I Once Was on the outro. He had already told Billboard in March, "The best compliment I can give a song is, ‘Man, this feels like a Toby Keith song,’" and added, "Especially as a songwriter, I don't know if there was a bigger influence on me."
Duck Blind and Carl
The video puts Green in Nashville’s Duck Blind, where he staggers through a chaotic night that ends with him in handcuffs, missing a boot and a girlfriend, and talking to his cowboy Corgi, Carl. That setup keeps the joke running as a rowdy night out until the reveal at the end pulls the story back toward Keith’s legacy instead of Green’s misadventure.
Toby Keith died in February 2024 after a battle with aggressive stomach cancer, and his family gave Green their blessing on the new song. The Toby Keith Foundation, started in 2006 to help pediatric cancer patients, now becomes part of the release’s path, so this is not just a nostalgia play; it routes attention and money toward the cause tied to Keith’s name.
That's Just Me
Think as You Drunk will appear on Green’s fourth studio album, That’s Just Me, due September 18. He is also set to join The Voice this fall as a new coach, and NBC has personalized one of the red chairs so he can keep his cowboy hat beside him on a holster.
Green does not need to over-explain the tribute. The sample, the cameo, and the charity link already do the work, and they position the song as a career move that carries Keith’s catalog forward while leaving Green room to sell the album and the TV slot on his own terms.
