“HE DIDN’T LEAVE A WILL — HE LEFT A SONG.” When Toby Keith’s health began to fade, he didn’t write a will — he wrote lyrics. On a small yellow note by his guitar, in shaky handwriting, he’d left one line: “If I don’t wake up tomorrow, don’t cry — just turn the radio up.” It wasn’t a farewell. It was a way of saying, keep living, keep singing. The morning he passed, his family found that note under a half-empty coffee cup, the radio still playing his voice. He never planned a goodbye — he left a song instead. And somehow, it still plays every time the world gets quiet.
Introduction In the final weeks of his life, Toby Keith didn’t talk about legacy, contracts,...