"Don't Let the Old Man In" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Toby Keith. It appears on his 2019 compilation album Greatest Hits: The Show Dog Years, and is also featured in the 2018 film The Mule.
Toby Keith met actor-director Clint Eastwood at a charity golf tournament in Pebble Beach, California, in 2018. At the time, Eastwood was working on his film The Mule. Keith told Billboard that he was surprised by the energy Eastwood seemed to have despite being 88 years old at the time, at which point Eastwood remarked, "I don't let the old man in". Keith liked this line and immediately wrote the song, which is a ballad about a man dealing with his increasing age. He was also inspired by an anecdote told to him by his grandmother, about a friend of hers who did not know her exact age due to her not owning a birth certificate. Billboard writer Cathy Applefield Olson described the song as "at once emotionally resigned and quietly triumphant". Olson also thought that the song's central theme of old age was appropriate to the plot line of The Mule, which is about an elderly person becoming a drug courier. Soon after writing, Keith recorded a demo which he submitted to Eastwood. Keith was sick the day he recorded the demo, creating a "raspy, sleepy, tired, sick vocal". Eastwood liked the recording and decided to put it in The Mule, feeling that the raspy delivery fit the mood of the song and the movie.
15 мар 2024
